A reminder to our friends and fans that the next CelticFest Vancouver and St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be held in March 2011.

With the Olympic and Paralympic Games set to dominate the local scene in 2010, we know that downtown venues and our community’s volunteer pool will be stretched to the absolute maximum, making it essentially impossible for us to fulfill our production requirements.

If you are an artist wishing to perform in 2011, please submit your promo kit to our office between September and November 2010.

The 6th Annual Edgewater Casino CelticFest Vancouver has come to a close, and it’s time for a HUGE tip of the hat to all of you who participated - whether as volunteers, as patrons, as sponsors or event supporters and spectators. CelticFest is really about all the people who come together to make this a one-of-a-kind Vancouver entertainment phenomenon - and without you it would not be the fast-growing success story it’s become. THANK YOU for joining us in Celtic kinship!

Our CelticFest team is celebrating a number of terrific highlights in this year’s festival. We had full-capacity events, with both the Whisky Kiss Scotch Tasting event and the CelticSalsa: Celts and Cubans United! show completely sold out. Our returning literary pub crawl, the Battle of The Bards, had fans cheering from one Irish pub to the next, and was stronger and more entertaining than ever. We had the best Celtic music session at Tom Lee Music, thanks to Paul O’Brien’s talents.  And the BIG St. Pat’s Night Out! show was a huge success, as Ireland’s Lúnasa joined with hilarious comedian Maureen Langan (and festival Host), Canadian fiddling wizard Ashley MacIsaac and local prodigy Quinn Bachand to set the Vogue Theatre alight! And we’re still buzzing over the spectacular fusion of two great Vancouver bands, The Paperboys and Cuban-Canadians Puro Son. We’re sure that their artistic as well as commercial success is just the first chapter of a significant and exciting new musical story that will continue to unfold.

Even the challenging weather on Sunday couldn’t keep volunteers and fans down as the 6th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade rolled out with its trademark colour, sound and excitement, thrilling the thousands of spectators who turned out to view the popular event.

CelticFest on Hiatus in 2010

Now it’s time for us to ask you to store up your CelticFest spirit for a little longer than usual. Our next appearance as a festival will be in  in March of 2011, as we’re taking a one-year hiatus and skipping a season next March. With the Olympic and Paralympic Games set to dominate the local scene next spring, we know that downtown venues and our community’s volunteer pool will be stretched to the absolute maximum, making it essentially impossible for us to fulfill our production requirements. 
But our major sponsors have committed to return to us in 2011. With their confidence and support - and yours - CelticFest will be back two years from now - bigger, better and greener than ever! 

See You In 2011!