After COVID cancelled the event in 2020 and restricted it in 2021, the Australian Celtic Festival came back bigger and better than ever.

Renowned as the premier Celtic event of New South Wales, it is also the only Celtic themed festival in Australia to recognise different Celtic Nations.

Held at the Australian Standing Stones in Glen Innes on the first weekend of May each year, the festival also spills into the Glen Innes main streets.

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This year, as well as the grand parade where locals and visitors alike proudly displayed their clan colours, there were music and dance performances, Celtic themed markets and a mediaeval village complete with a 'knight school' for the kids, jousting competition and highland games.

The inaugural medieval banquet was such a success it is tipped to become a regular part of the event.

Event coordinator and Glen Innes Severn Council tourism and events officer Rhonda Bombell said organisers couldn't be happier.

"It was a huge success," Ms Bombell said.

'It's very hard to get momentum going again after a break, but I think to get the numbers that we did and to get the positivity that we got that we've achieved that.

"The weather was glorious, and it was such a fun event. I think everyone was just really wanting to get out there and celebrate, and it all came together and was perfect.

"And we have had so much positive feedback from performers, traders, visitors and locals.

"Having all those positive people around you, the volunteers and a community group, this is what this event is all about.

"Bringing the visitors for our local businesses has been something our economy really needed, so things are picking up."

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Ms Bombell said there were a few new elements to the festival this year, such as Celts in the Park.

"We had bands playing in the rotunda and buskers, which was for people who don't normally go to the festival," she said.

"It was to tweak them into coming up to the Standing Stones - and we were really pleased with that turn out as well."

Amazingly the recently elected mayor of Glen Innes had never been to the festival before last weekend.

"I totally enjoyed my first Australian Celtic Festival," Cr Rob Banham said.

"Meeting wonderful people and hearing about their heritage was so enlightening and gave me a far better understanding of what this festival means to the attendees.

"As a first-time visitor, I would recommend to all of the local communities that haven't been to the Australian Standing Stones to make a note to attend next year."

Cr Banham said he was also very humbled to be appointed by an official ceremony as the Chief Guardian of the Australian Standing Stones during the festival.

It's believed that the Celtic culture started to evolve as early as 1200 B.C. and spread throughout western Europe-including Britain, Ireland, France and Spain-via migration.

These days the Celt legacy remains most prominent in Ireland and Great Britain.

In 2023 the focus of the Glen Innes festival will be Scotland.

"It'll be the same sort of thing but just a little bit of a different celebration," Ms Bombell said. "We're going to reinvent something spectacular."

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