Tortoise festival, source of pride in the past (8)

'tortoise' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'festival source of pride in the past' is the wordplay.
'festival' becomes 'gala' (a gala is a festival or party).
'source of' indicates taking the first letters (the start - or source - of the word).
'in the past' becomes 'ago' (three years ago means three years in the past).
The first letter of 'pride' is 'p'.
'gala'+'p'+'ago'='GALAPAGO'

Can you help me to learn more?