Is Celtic Connections celebrating its 25th anniversary a year early, a year late or right on time?

THE popular Celtic Connections music festival is celebrating its silver anniversary a year early.

The festival officially debuted in January 1994 but the organising team decided to mark its 25th birthday this year because it was conceived in 1993.

Cameron McNicol, the then director of Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, first hit on the idea after attending a similar festival in France. A spokesperson for Celtic Connections said: “The festival was launched later that year and the actual festival took place in January 1994, so the team wanted to mark this as a historic moment and celebrate it this year.”

The festival – which runs until February 4 – has grown at an astonishing rate.

In its first year, 27,000 people attended 66 events based at one venue.

This year, there are more than 300 events across 28 venues which will be attended by more than 110,000 music fans seeing acts ranging from Scots folk band, The Tannahill Weavers, to American singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne.

Donald Shaw, the festival’s artistic director, said: “There are performers playing who were here right at the very start and some who, 25 years ago, people would never have expected to see perform on a Celtic Connections stage.”