CORNISH rugby shirts selling like hot cakes, plenty of Spingo to wash down the pasties, cream teas and some good old sea shanties to keep the atmosphere merry proved a hit with our continental counterparts.

People from Cornwall have been visiting the Festivale Interceltique in Lorient, Brittany, for many years, but a delegation has just returned by Brittany Ferries which has taken the message both to the French themselves, and people from Celtic nations all over the world who had travelled to France, that it was time they paid a visit to Cornwall.

The festival this year attracted 650,000 people to hear the music, taste the food and drink, and to join in a get-together of Celtic people from all over the world, from Guadeloupe to Chile, Mexico to Vietnam, as well as the nations closer to home such as the Bretons, Irish, Scots and Welsh.

With the 41st festival celebrating the Celtic diaspora, it was a festival which explored where people of Celtic origin had travelled and taken their culture. It brought up an amazing mix, from Jack Kerouac to Le Bagad Karukera pipe band, complete with colourful girl dancers from Guadeloupe.

A huge crowd of 80,000 packed the route through Lorient of the grand parade which included 78 mainly pipe bands and lasted for three hours, 40 minutes. It is a unique experience, with Breton villages especially involving all the family, from grandparents to babes in arms as they dance to their pipe bands.

Neil Plummer and Beatrice Kerno, who have played a major part in the organisation of the Cornwall representation at the festival for many years, were in the parade, along with Cornwall Council Cabinet member for Customer First and Culture Joan Symons and the Bolingey Troyl Band from Perranporth.

Progressive folk-rock band Pentorr, from East Cornwall, played a packed gig, while the Bolingey Troyl Band appeared at one of the big venues, Espace Marine, and also entertained outside the Cornwall stand.

Another Perranporth outfit, Stamp and Go, brought a real smile to the crowds after rain poured down after the grand parade. Just as the parade ended the heavens opened, but Stamp and Go got into strong voice with shanties and traditional Cornish songs which drew crowds to both the Cornwall stand and the Blue Anchor bar, over from Helston, to sell litre after litre of four strengths of their Spingo, brewed in Cornwall and shipped over by Brittany Ferries.

Simon and Kim Stone had brought over plenty of bar staff to deal with the queues for not only Spingo, but Cornish pasties and cream teas.

The French had a bit of a problem with cream teas, with one couple eating the scones without touching the jam or cream, saying: "I see, you put the cream in the tea."

There were plenty of other Cornish there – John Nelligan with his historic boat the Grace, from Penzance, Hilary Hughes, from Saltash, with her copper, seawater and salt works on canvas, and Melanie Guy, from Stoke Climsland, with her work in metals.