Highland Village concert online
IONA — Since 1962, the Hector's Point hillside has come alive for the annual Là Mór a' Bhaile Highland Village Day Concert, featuring the very best of Nova Scotia Gaelic culture from established and up-and-coming fiddlers, pipers, singers, dancers and more, all with the spectacular backdrop of the Bras d'Or Lake.
Although the pandemic has put the live hillside concert on hold for this year, Highland Village has brought the 59th annual concert to the world with a special online presentation through its YouTube and Facebook social media channels.
This year's concert, available online as of Aug. 1, features performances from locations throughout the Baile nan Gàidheal Highland Village museum site in Iona and a finale on the stage itself.
Performers include Kyle MacNeil, Sheumas and Monica MacNeil and family, Donnie Campbell, Buddy MacDonald, Howie MacDonald, Joanne MacIntyre and boys, Stephanie MacDonald, Susan MacLean, Hannah Krebs, Katherine MacDonald, Shawnee Paul, Nora Fownes, Phillip and Marley Whyte, and members of the Cape Breton University Pipe Band — Aiden, Cameron, Emma and Cody MacNeil.
The concert also marks the 60th anniversary of the Nova Scotia Highland Village and the 20th anniversary of the village joining the Nova Scotia Museum family.
In 1979, the board of trustees of the Nova Scotia Highland Village Society established an annual Award of Merit to recognize individuals and organizations who have made outstanding contributions to the Highland Village and/or to Scottish Gaelic Culture in Nova Scotia.
This year the society has recognized Flora Ann MacIsaac of Boisdale, described as, “Generous, kind and everwilling to help out folks who are learning Gaelic.”
The Nova Scotia Highland Village Society has also presented $2,500 in scholarships to three up and coming culture bearers through its Stòras na -Òigridh Treasures of Youth Scholarship Fund. Managed by the Community Foundation of Nova Scotia, the fund supports Nova Scotian youth between the ages of five and 21 with a keen interest to advance their traditional Gaelic cultural skills, including fiddle, pipes, piano/guitar accompaniment, language, storytelling, song and dance.
This year's recipients are Abby Hansen, a fiddler, piano player and Gaelic singer from the Halifax Regional Municipality who received $1,000; Phillip Whyte, a Gaelic speaker and singer from Barachois in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, who was given $1,000; and Gracie Hawes, a fiddler and piano player from St. Andrews, Antigonish County, who received $500.
Treasures of Youth also has a fiddle loan program. Halle Rose MacLean of Creignish will be taking on the fiddle tradition using a half-size fiddle donated to Treasures of Youth by Roger Gallant.