COUNTDOWN TO CELTIC COLOURS
Just a few more weeks before annual festival plays away another year
Just a few more weeks before annual festival plays away another year.
Believe it or not, a month from now we’ll be half-way through the 22nd Celtic Colours International Festival, Cape Breton Island’s annual showcase of music, culture, scenery and hospitality.
While ticket sales have been brisk since opening day in July — a dozen concerts sold out the first day with the count rising to 20 after the first week — there are still tickets available for concerts every day of the festival (although standing room only for the opening Friday night) and in all four counties of Cape Breton Island.
During the first Celtic Colours in 1997, I volunteered as a driver and was instantly hooked on the experience of being a bit of an ambassador for the island and tour guide for visiting musicians as I drove all over Cape Breton getting them to their shows and taking the occasional scenic route along the way. Not to mention the endless supply of superbly-played music and the overflowing good cheer, which I would come to know as “the craic.”
My last assignment that year was to drive platinumselling Scottish group Capercaillie to the airport, in the early-morning-feeling afternoon following their spellbinding performance during the Grand Ceilidh closing show at Centre 200. I’m excited to see two of the founding members of this influential group — acclaimed musician, producer, and award-winning composer Donald Shaw and Karen Matheson, described by Billboard magazine as “the finest Gaelic singer alive today” — are returning to the festival for the first time since and are
part of the Saturday Night at the Savoy concert, October 6. They will share the bill with extraordinary Scottish Gaelic singers Kathleen MacInnes and Cathy Ann MacPhee and local favourites Donnie Campbell and Jinks O’Neill.
I had such a great experience driving for Celtic Colours in the first year, that I volunteered again in 1998, signing up for the whole nine days of the festival. My first assignment that year was to take Scottish Gaelic singers Ishbel MacAskill and Margaret Bennett for an afternoon drive toward the Cabot Trail to see the autumn leaves.
I will always remember that drive for its easy familiarity and friendly conversation. Ishbel and Margaret proved to be wonderful company and we had a lovely afternoon of siteseeing and some very interesting conversations.
As we drove, we listened to The Second Wave, a compilation of some of the artists who would be performing at Celtic Colours that year and discussed the various artists represented and their music.
When the milling song “Cruinneag Na Buaile” came on, somewhere along the North Shore, Margaret and Ishbel praised the group of Cape Breton singers for how many verses of the song that they knew and how their accents sounded “just like they’re from Uist” or something to that affect.
And with that, their conversation switched seamlessly into Gaelic. I hardly noticed the transition, only that I suddenly didn’t understand what they were saying in the backseat anymore. It struck me at the time that it probably made a lot more sense to discuss these old Gaelic songs and traditions in their native Gaelic and I feel like this sparked my interest in exploring the role of language in the context of culture.
In addition to being a beautifully-voiced singer, Margaret is one of the world’s foremost authorities on Scottish folklore. A well-respected scholar, folklorist and writer, she returned to the festival five times in the following seven years, including as one of the artists in residence in 2002. The last time was in 2005, so I’m very much looking forward to Margaret’s return to the festival this year where she will be performing with Norman Kennedy, a celebrated exponent of traditional ballad-singing and storytelling. There are still some tickets available for their performances including In Celebration of Song in Sydney River on Tuesday, October 9 and A Full Slate in L’Ardoise on Thursday, October 11.
As a result of my experience working and volunteering at Celtic Colours, I have had the opportunity to travel to Glasgow, Scotland to work at Celtic Connections, the three-week long festival that Celtic Colours was partially modeled on. It was there, probably around 2007, that I first heard of Kate Rusby, an award-winning and much-loved singer and songwriter who is very well-known there. As seems to be usual for me in such circumstances, I never did get to see Kate perform, but I certainly did hear her name a lot. Now, finally, I am getting another chance and I’m not going to miss it this time. In her only Canadian appearances this year, Kate Rusby will be performing on Friday, October 12 in Membertou and during the closing concert at Centre 200
on Saturday, October 13.
The 22nd Celtic Colours International Festival runs from October 5-13, 2018, featuring concerts and cultural events in 70 communities all over Cape Breton Island.
For tickets or more information visit celtic-colours.com, call 902-567-3000 (local), 1-888-3557744 (toll free), or drop in at the Celtic Colours Box Office on Nepean Street in Sydney.
Local writer and musician Dave Mahalik has worked as Celtic Colours International Festival’s Information / Communications Officer for 19 years, after volunteering as a driver for the first two years. His book about Celtic Colours, “10 Nights Without Sleep,” is available from Breton Books, and his column appears regularly leading up to Celtic Colours in October. He can be reached at dave@celtic-colours.com.