Double bill Celtic Spring Fling coming to deCoste
The deCoste Performing Arts Centre will be host to a performance serving crash course on Maritime Celtic culture and history, through tunes, pipes, fiddles, stories, songs and dance, in the final Maritime show of the Celtic Spring Fling tour.
April 21 marks the date the Celtic Spring Fling tour makes a stop in Pictou.
The tour will feature the talent of Cassie and Maggie MacDonald of Antigonish, and the Paul McKenna Band of Glasgow, Scotland.
Information from the deCoste Centre indicates the show will be “an eclectic combination of tunes, pipes, fiddles, stories, songs and dance.” Cassie and Maggie MacDonald and the members of the Paul McKenna band with whom they will be performing first met at Cape Breton’s Celtic Colours festival.
“(They) have known each other for years, but this is the first time the seven musicians have created a mystical and energetic stage show together, featuring fiddles, pipes, bodhran, step dancing singing and more that will have audience members dancing and clapping along with them,” according to the release.
The Celtic Spring Fling has a historical flair, since its stories chronicle immigration through the Maritime provinces. This historical focus is relevant, particularly to Pictou, given that it is where the Hector landed with 189 Scottish settlers from Lochbroom, fleeing the Highland clearances.
Antigonish, home of Cassie and Maggie MacDonald, has its own historical relevance to the performance’s historical content as well, being the home to the first Highland Games in Canada, held in 1861.
According to the deCoste Centre, The Celtic Spring Fling shows “an appreciation of the hardships Irish and Scottish ancestors had to endure,” and the perseverance that allowed them to keep their morale up with the songs and music that have been passed down through generations, and “continue to be acclaimed throughout the world today.”
To find out more, or to purchase tickets, contact 902-4858848 or 1-800-353-5338 – or visit www.decostecentre.ca.