Name: Bealtaine Festival at the ICC
Start: 2026-05-02T12:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-05-02T21:00:00-04:00
Location: Irish Cultural Center of Western New England

The Irish Cultural Center of Western New England presents our first annual Bealtaine Festival on Saturday, May 2. Join us all afternoon for family-friendly fun with traditional and popular Irish music, kids activities, and an evening fire lighting.
The festivities take place on the ICC grounds with a large outdoor tent, patio, and in the Trinity Pub, located at 429 Morgan Road in West Springfield, MA. Free admission.
There will be lots of fun for kids, with crafts and activities including making flower crowns, learning the tin whistle, coloring, and face painting.
In the evening, we will light a small fire to celebrate the ancient festival of Bealtaine, as the Celtic community would have done to mark the beginning of summer in the Celtic calendar.
Schedule:
• 12 pm: Springfield Rifles Rugby match
• 2–5 pm: Kids crafts & activities (outdoor tent)
• 2–5 pm: Live music with Jimmy McArdle and Jerry Murphy (patio)
• 5–6 pm: Fire lighting
• 6–9 pm: Live music with New Leaf (inside the pub)
The grounds and the Trinity Pub bar open at 12 pm. The Boricua Bites food truck will be here from 12–5 pm, offering delicious snacks with a Puerto Rican flair. The Irish House Restaurant serves a special limited dinner menu inside from 5–9 pm.
Guests are welcome to bring chairs or blankets for additional seating on the grass.
Learn More About Bealtaine
This ancient fire festival marked the beginning of summer in the Celtic calendar. It is one of the Cross Quarter Days, halfway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. This time of the year celebrated the joy of light and abundance returning to the land. The ancient Celts would come together as a community to light bonfires signifying purification and transition. Hearth fires would be extinguished and a new fire lit. They would also move their animals to summer pastures, and the season was welcomed with the hopes of a prosperous harvest later in the year.
Presenting Business Sponsor: Westfield Bank. Thanks to all our Sponsors: https://iccwne.org/support/business-sponsors/