Artists slated to perform include Barleyjuice, Blackwater, Brownpenny, Burning Bridget Cleary, Dublin 5, The Elders, Emish, Four Leaf Clovers, Full Set, Glengarry Bhoys, Jamison, Seamus Kennedy, Kilmaine Saints, Long Time Courting, Makem & Spain Brothers, Carl Peterson, Piper’s Request, Poor Angus, RUNA, Slainte, Craig Thatcher & Nyk VanDyk, and Timlin & Kane. Other musical attractions during the weekend include pipe band, fiddle and drum major competitions. Irish dancers from the Irish Stars School of Irish Dance and the O’Grady Quinlan Academy of Irish Dance also will take part in the festivities, as will several Irish and Irish-American comedians.

North America’s largest highland games take place during the Celtic Classic. The U.S. National Highland Athletic Championships will include the lifting of heavy stone, throwing 16 and 22-pound hammers, and tossing of the sheaf and caber. Border collie exhibitions, a “Showing of the Tartan” parade, a Guinness “Pour a Perfect Pint” contest, a new children’s tent, instructional contra and ceili dancing, clan tents, and a Celtic marketplace featuring crafts, merchandise and collectibles also are on tap.

The festival grounds are located along the banks of Monocracy Creek and adjacent to downtown Bethlehem’s Main Street shopping area. More information on one of the most popular events in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, including daily schedules, may be found at www.celticfest.org.

Hope Machine is a group of coal-holders; keepers of the flame; messengers; foot-stompin’, guitar-bangin’, drum-beatin’, song-leadin’, harp-blowin’, hand-clappin’, human hoping machines. Based in New York’s Hudson Valley, Fred Gillen, Jr., Steve Kirkman, Carolann Solebello (formerly of Red Molly) and Scott Urgola perform passionate, spirited versions of both Woody’s well-known and more obscure songs. The group, whose Woody Guthrie program is officially recognized by the Woody Guthrie Foundation, carries the message of human unity, hope, and spiritual freedom handed down to them by their elders. They often invite other musicians to join them and encourage people to sing along, dance, yell, yodel, jump up and down, or whatever else their spirits move them to do.

Alastair Moock is an award-winning, Boston-based singer-songwriter whom The Boston Globeard, Phil Henry, Loretta Hagen, Honor Finnegan, has described as “one of the town’s best and most adventurous.” Like the members of Hope Machine, Alastair is drawn to music that addresses progressive issues. Like his boyhood hero, Woody Guthrie, he believes in the power of music to touch all people. He also performs school assembly programs on the life and times of Woody Guthrie and recently launched a broader program on music and social change. Alastair has also organized and hosted a hootenanny-like Pastures of Plenty series (that takes its name from a popular Woody Guthrie tune) at various venues throughout New England — bringing songwriters and musicians together to celebrate the roots of American music.

Following the Guthrie tribute, 10 artists and acts, who were selected by a panel of judges from among 70 applicants, will showcase their talents from 4:30-7 p.m. They include singer-songwriters Richard Berman (Amherst, MA), Karin Blaine (Seattle, WA), Sam Chase (South Shore, MA), Beth DeSombre (Wellesley, MA), Honor Finnegan (New York, NY), Sharon Goldman (Metuchen, NJ), Loretta Hagen (West Milford, NJ), Phil Henry (Rutland, VT) and Claudia Nygaard, (Nashville, TN) as well as the Boston-based female quartet Long Time Courting.

“We’re delighted to be able to open these events up to the public and expose more people to some of the wonderful folk music being made and played by artists today, as well as to the music of Woody Guthrie in this centennial year of his birth,” said Michael Kornfeld and Kathy Sands-Boehmer, the conference’s co-coordinators. “We are particularly grateful to WUMB, Boston’s NPR Music Station, for partnering with us to make this happen.”

NERFA is part of the larger Folk Alliance International, an association that aims to foster and promote multicultural, traditional and contemporary folk music, while strengthening and advancing organizational and individual initiatives in folk music and dance through education, networking, advocacy, and professional and field development.

Editor’s Note: Besides co-coordinating the one-day mini-conference in Boston with my friend and NERFA board colleague Kathy Sands-Boehmer, I’ll be moderating a panel discussion on “Building Community” and participating on another panel entitled “Marketing and Promotion for Artists and Venues.” On Thursday, May 31, I’ll be speaking about NERFA during the final hour of “The Folk Revival” hosted by Nick Noble on WICN 90.5 FM in central Massachusetts and streaming live online at wicn.org from 7-11 p.m.

Now in its eighth year, the festival will explore and affirm the interrelationship between the song and instrumental traditions in Celtic music – affording musicians an opportunity to explore the richness of traditional songs and ballads and singers to gain a better appreciation for jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas, marches, strathspeys and airs.

More than 100 performers, a mix of established artists and new or emerging acts from the Boston area’s Celtic music community – including fiddlers, flutists, accordionists, guitarists, singers and other musicians, as well as dancers — will be featured during the festival. Their styles and approach run the gamut from dyed-in-the-wool traditional to more contemporary-minded sounds.

BCMFest kicks off with a customary Friday night concert at Club Passim in Harvard Square, Cambridge (featuring Plaiditude, Susie Petrov & Reinmar Seidler and Long Time Courting) and the ever-popular Boston Urban Ceilidh – a Celtic dance party –at the Canadian-American Club, a few miles west, in Watertown (with music provided by Kimberly Fraser & Hanneke Cassel, Laura Cortese and the Boston Urban Ceilidh Band, and Pelham Norville, Adam Cole-Mullen, Bethany Waickman & Dan Gurney).

The festival continues on Saturday with a day-long series of performances at Club Passim and on three different stages at the nearby First Parish of Cambridge. In addition to featured artists, there will be a showcase of Celtic-style rock power ballads, an open stage and opportunities for all to sing along during “Lift Every Voice.” Halali (featuring fiddlers Cortese, Cassel and Lissa Schneckenburger, as well as guitarist Flynn Cohen – all of whom have branched out on their own and achieved some solo success) will reunite and close out the festival on Saturday night, along with a number of guest musicians and dancers. The three fiddlers met as teenagers while attending Alasdair Fraser’s School for Scottish fiddlers in California.

Tickets for the BCMFest finale concert are $15; $13 for Club Passim members, while combo passes for the festival “DayFest” and the finale concert ($25 and $23) also are available. For more information on the festival, visit www.bcmfest.com.