‘It’s still a great concert’
Big Pond summer show that was dedicated to “Father Joe” Gillis attracts full-house to community fire hall
It may not be what it once was, but the Big Pond summer concert is still music to the ears of those who take in the annual show that has traditionally featured some of Cape Breton’s most talented musicians.
“It used to be the event of the summer — it’s still a great concert with excellent performances and it’s well worth the drive,” said Louise Hall, who made the 35-kilometre journey from Sydney to the Big Pond Fire Hall for this year’s edition of the event that has been held since 1964.
Now called the Big Pond Festival Sunday Concert, the event once known as the Scottish Concert was considered one of the island’s top showcases of musical talent and attracted thousands of people to MacIntyre’s Field in Big Pond Centre.
This year’s show was dedicated to the memory of the late Rev. Joe Gillis, better known as Father Joe, who died earlier this year at age 87. The former St. Francis Xavier University mathematics professor retired from a 22-year teaching career to pursue his vocation as a parish priest. During the next 37 years, he would serve throughout the Diocese of Antigonish, including stints at St. Mary’s in Big Pond and Sacred Heart in nearby Johnstown.
The concert attracted a standing-room only crowd to the fire hall that overlooks the East Bay portion of Bras d’Or Lake.
Among those in attendance was nine-year-old Mairin Campbell, grand-niece of the fiddle-loving priest who was said to thoroughly enjoy the annual Big Pond concert. Mairin, who was born and raised in Yellowknife, N.W.T., is the daughter of Cape Breton parents and visits the island every summer. And, when she returns to the north after the family holiday she’ll be toting Father Joe’s fiddle.
“Father Joe gave it to her before he died — he really wanted her to have it,” said Mairin’s mother, Thea (Gillis) Campbell.
For her part, young Mairin, who celebrates her birthday today, is headed to the St. Anns Gaelic College this week before she returns to Yellowknife.
“I enjoy it and I’m happy to have his fiddle — I know I have to take care of it or I’ll be grounded for life,” she joked during a break in the concert.
Sunday’s show featured performances by Aaron Lewis, Kimberley Fraser, Kinnon and Betty Beaton, Marilyn MacDonald-MacKinnon, Keith MacDonald, Doug MacPhee, Jason Roach and Colin Grant.
The show also brought back memories for many of those in attendance. In fact, folks were still talking about one of the concert’s most memorable moments that happened after the Westray mine disaster in 1992, when Rita MacNeil rendered an emotional and passionate performance of “Working Man” in tribute to the 26 miners killed in the Pictou County coal mine explosion.