Celtic Colours in Richmond
Visitors take part in concerts, jam sessions, cultural activities
It’s been another amazing year for Celtic Colours in Richmond County and across Cape Breton Island.
We had lots of visitors coming through our doors at the visitor information centre, looking for assistance. We had tons of inquiries about scheduled concerts and activities to fill their days leading up to the concert times.
It was wonderful to see just how many visitors were coming into the area from around the world, some for the first time, but many making return visits, because they had enjoyed the festival in previous years.
It is so rewarding when you are able to match a person who hadn’t heard of the festival with a concert on the dates they would be in that area. The appreciation on their faces makes your day.
We also stayed in touch with the festival box office to have people added to the waiting list for tickets to soldout concerts in hopes of having some tickets returned for resale and those that we had added would be contacted.
One of the yearly things we face each festival season is dealing with people coming into the area who have not heard about the island-wide festival and have not booked rooms before coming. That makes it a little difficult as most accommodations are booked up months in advance of Celtic Colours. We have had luck in finding these folks accommodations. For visitors with RVs, it was easier, as we had businesses willing to let them park in their lots.
At the time of writing this column, three of the four concerts in Richmond County were sold-out, with only limited tickets available for the L’Ardoise concert A Full Slate.
For those visitors, that were unable to obtain concert tickets, we directed them to cultural events that offered music as well. We were also able to direct them to the popular Kitchen Rackets jam sessions at the Bras d’Or Lakes Inn in St. Peter’s. These sessions which had taken place for a number of years, offered music lovers an opportunity to enjoy entertainment every night following the Celtic Colours concerts.
This evening visitors have the opportunity to enjoy an Acadien cultural event featuring an Acadien lunch of chicken fricot, meat pie and dessert, a craft and artisans market and entertainment by the Trina Samson Dance School at Centre LaPicasse in Petit de Grat.