Celtic Connections, the annual traditional, folk and roots music festival held in Glasgow, appears to be bucking the effects of the credit crunch and is selling tickets as swiftly as it did last year, its most successful to date.

CELTIC Connections, the annual traditional, folk and roots music festival held in Glasgow, appears to be bucking the effects of the credit crunch and is selling tickets as swiftly as it did last year, its most successful to date.

Ticket sales at the festival are currently in line with those of this time last year, when the festival was estimated to have added £7.9m to the Scottish economy.

Several shows are sold out and many others have limited availability, a spokeswoman said last night.

Bookings from Australia, Africa and Asia have also increased, she said.

The festival added an extra date for Eddi Reader Sings the Songs of Robert Burns after the singer's first concert sold out.

Other sold-out events include Nanci Griffith, The Wilders, Mary Gauthier, Saint Andrew and the Rare Wee Helps, and A Highland Fiddler featuring Bruce MacGregor, Duncan Chisholm and Iain MacFarlane.

Auld Lang Syne at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and the Jerry Douglas Band at the Old Fruitmarket have only standing tickets left, and all dancing tickets for the Homecoming Scotland All-Star Ceilidh have sold out.

Other shows, including Dougie MacLean, Karine Polwart and Flight of the Arctic Tern, have limited availability.

Celtic Connections is collaborating with Homecoming Scotland 2009 to stage a number of events to celebrate Robert Burns's 250th anniversary, which falls on the middle weekend of the festival.

On Burns Night itself, the festival will pay tribute to Scotland's national Bard with a Jamaican Burns Night featuring Sly & Robbie at the Old Fruitmarket, and the Homecoming Scotland Suite at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.