After a hiatus that began in 2020, WELSHhFest is returning to downtown Rockmart this spring with a focus on reigniting a local connection with the past from the British Isles.

Festivities will be getting underway for the weekend on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2023 at 6 p.m. at the Historic Van Wert Church for a Hymn Singing, but the main event is coming up the next day.

Mark those calendars for March 18, 2023 as the annual festival returns to downtown Rockmart from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Organizers are planning a variety of activities during WelshFest that come from a past rooted deep in the same Celtic heritage that prevails throughout the British Isles.

Those include a kilt contest, welly wanging, and a Welsh Corgi show among more family-friendly portions of the event including a genealogy room, history tents, bounce houses, balloon animals, face painting, a caricature artist, and photo ops with the WelshFest dragon.

Plans also include a sensory room and a performance of the Welsh National Anthem.

Vendors are still being sought for the event, but several food trucks and arts and crafts sellers have already signed up for the event. Check out what space is left at www.rockmartwelshfest.com.

The entertainment lineup includes bagpipers, Scarlett Wool, Isaac Streetman, and Them Mixon Boys for Saturday’s big event.

WelshFest began in 2015 as a way to reconnect Rockmart with its Welsh roots. The eastern half of Polk County began life as a quarry site that brought in Welsh workers to Van Wert to mine the slate still pulled from hillsides just blocks from downtown Rockmart where the festival is held.

The organizers were forced to take a break suddenly in 2020 due to the COVID-19 shutdown that began just a day before they were to gather, and extended the hiatus into 2021 and 2022.