Music achieves its full emotional effect only when performed live, just as great literature becomes comprehensible only when screamed aloud in a crowded subway train. Enjoy public performance with today’s deal to the Niagara Celtic Heritage Festival and Highland Games on the grounds of Krull Park in Olcott on Saturday, September 17 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday, September 18 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Children younger than 12 get into the festival free of charge, and the festival grounds are about an hour’s drive from Buffalo and Rochester. Choose between the following options:

• For $18, you get two weekend passes to the festival (a $40 value).
• For $8, you get one weekend pass to the festival (a $20 value).
  
  

During a weekend honoring Irish, Scottish, and Welsh cultures, historical reenactors don bright costumes while strongmen muscle boulders, and bagpipes and guitars mingle with scents of traditional cuisine in the crisp autumn air. Crowds can tote lawn chairs, blankets, and inflatable toadstools to view an eclectic selection of bands atop three stages, including the Vancouver-based The Town Pants, who fuse Irish strains with acoustic pop and undertones of Mexican music. Bagpipers regale audiences with poignant melodies, and Irish and highland-dance troupes leap across stages before leading dancing workshops. In the highland games, strongmen run through a gauntlet of centuries-old challenges, including stone throws, caber tosses, and leading horses to water.

Niagara Celtic Heritage Festival also showcases entertainment for children, such as pony rides and stories from silver-tongued historians, whose access to uncensored history books yields colorful accounts of kings, battles, and the days when stamps were taxed. Though not included in this deal, festival-goers can satiate cravings for scotch eggs, maple cotton candy, and corned beef at the food court, or pick up souvenirs at the marketplace.