{"id":316061,"date":"2026-10-28T13:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T13:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/316061\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T13:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T13:24:11","slug":"celtic-classic-ends-after-39-years-as-bethlehem-nonprofit-shuts-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/316061\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Classic ends after 39 years as Bethlehem nonprofit shuts down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 The Celtic Cultural Alliance, which has run Bethlehem\u2019s Celtic Classic Highland Games &amp; Festival since 1988, announced Wednesday that it is shutting down, making last month\u2019s festival the last.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The alliance blamed money, not crowds, and its federal tax returns show the strain: its net assets, what it owned minus what it owed, fell by about two-thirds in two years, to $99,158 at the end of 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The closing ends more than the festival, held this year Sept. 25-27. The alliance also ran the Parade of Shamrocks, concerts, cultural classes and educational programs, and <a href=\"https:\/\/celticfest.org\/about-cca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">it says<\/a> it offers scholarships to young students of Irish step dance, Highland dance, fiddle and bagpipes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Attendance \u201chas remained strong,\u201d the alliance said in <a href=\"https:\/\/celticfest.org\/?p=6180\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">its announcement<\/a>, but changing spending habits, several years of weather that affected the festival, the lasting financial hit of the COVID-19 pandemic and steadily rising operating costs left the nonprofit in an \u201cunsustainable financial reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tRest of story locked188 more words \u00b7 1 min<br \/>\n\t\tKeep reading<\/p>\n<p>\t\tStory continues \u00b7 1 min left<\/p>\n<p>Read the rest of this story \u2014 freeWelcome back.That email didn\u2019t go through.<\/p>\n<p>Reader emails keep local news free, with no paywall. You\u2019ll get our newsletter with the Valley\u2019s top stories Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, and that\u2019s all we use it for. Do it once and every story stays open.You left the newsletter, so stories past here need your email again. Rejoin and every story opens.We couldn\u2019t deliver to the address you gave. Use another one and every story opens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nl-inline-privacy\">Unsubscribe anytime. <a href=\"https:\/\/lehighdaily.com\/privacy-policy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy policy<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The returns, filed as Celtic Fest Inc. doing business as Celtic Cultural Alliance, show net assets of $302,927 at the end of 2021. The alliance lost $7,122 in 2022 and $196,647 in 2023, when revenue dropped to $528,151 from $825,818.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis was an incredibly difficult decision,\u201d Board President Lane Rundle said in the announcement. \u201cThe Celtic Cultural Alliance has always been about bringing people together through music, culture, education, and tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The nonprofit finished 2024 about $47,700 ahead on $878,272 in revenue, bringing its net assets back to $146,902, its return shows. What it owed also rose that year, to $200,428 in total liabilities from $71,775.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sales, after the cost of what was sold, brought in about 62% of 2024 revenue and contributions about 37%. The alliance reported two employees and 435 volunteers. Its return for 2025 is not yet among the IRS\u2019s released electronic filings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The alliance has not said when its operations will formally end, or whether anyone could carry on the festival or the parade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The board thanked Executive Director Jayne Ann Recker, who has led the organization for the past 18 years. Through the festival, the parade and its other programs, the alliance said, it welcomed millions of visitors to the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 The Celtic Cultural Alliance, which has run Bethlehem\u2019s Celtic Classic Highland Games &amp; Festival since&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-316061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}