We are getting more and more energized about our 2008 festival line-up. We already gave you all a sneak preview in our last blog and we are sure your appetite is whetted. This time we wanted to focus on some of the events and people that are unusual or new to CelticFest Vancouver.
First, he is not new, but he IS unusual. Shameless the leprechaun will be back throwing gold chocolate coins and spreading good cheer. It is a source of some embarrassment that he’s a good 6 inches taller than I am! But seriously though folks…. In addition to our usual 1 pm free open air shows on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (March 12th-14th) at Granville Square (200 Granville Street) we will also be presenting free shows at noon on the same days at the scenic and wonderful Canada Place (North End Pointe) with its stunning panoramic cityscape, ocean and mountain views.
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| Tony McManus |
Friday evening (March 14th) at the Yale Hotel we will feature the world’s greatest Celtic guitarist, Scotland’s Tony McManus. Now I know the Yale has featured some of the finest guitarists ever on its hallowed stage over the years, but I promise you, you have NEVER seen anything quite like Tony. This is a must for ALL lovers of the guitar. His guitar playing will take your breath away.
Another first for the festival is the inclusion of Ottawa Valley style stepdancing, courtesy of the wonderfully talented Stephanie Cadman. She’ll be strutting her stuff at Canada Place on Wednesday March 12th, at the Commodore Ballroom that same night and will be teaching a workshop (the first EVER in Vancouver) at Tom Lee Music Hall on Saturday March 15th.
Making its debut on Thursday (March 13th) this year is an exciting event we call ‘The Battle of The Bards’. It is a fast-paced tour at some of downtown Vancouver’s finest Celtic Pubs for a head-to-head poetry face-off featuring the most famous Celtic writers! Inspired, in part, by the famous Dublin Literary Pub Crawl, three actors dressed in costume, take on the roles of Dylan Thomas (actor Damon Calderwood), Robbie Burns (actor “Toddish McWong“) and 
William Butler Yeats (actor Mark Downey) to share some of the great works which firmly placed them in the Celtic cannon. Not content to just have these legendary figures in one room, we put them to the real test in a competition fashioned after the hugely popular spoken word poetry slams.
The late night Festival Artists’ Lounge, on Friday (March 14th), made its debut last year and was a great success. This year we plan to make it bigger and better. We’ve invited all the festival artists to come out to play – and that’s exactly what they will do. It is a musical free for all in which anything can happen – spontaneous jam sessions, collaborations between Celtic artists from different bands, inspired musical virtuosity and lots of laughs. The best thing about it is that you are invited to come along. You’ll hear great players like host Tony McManus, Steafan Hannigan and Wendy MacIsaac & Patrick Gillis, and get a rare chance to witness
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| Wendy MacIsaac |
what happens when musicians get together after-hours to have some musical fun.
The Music Workshops at Tom Lee Music City Stage on Saturday and Sunday (March 15th and 16th) are once again free and open to the public. This year for the first time we are featuring some astonishing international talent, including the guitar wizardry of the world’s greatest Celtic guitarist, Tony McManus, and the renowned multi instrumentalist Steafan Hannigan who’ll be demonstrating how to play both bodhran (Irish drum) and Irish pipes. Steafan has played with everyone from Bjork and Depeche Mode to Michael Flatley. If you come along, you’ll see why! The Cape Breton fiddle and guitar duo of Wendy MacIsaac and Pat Gillis will also be part of this year’s workshops, and they are guaranteed to make your jaw drop in amazement.
We have been amazed in the past by how much interest there is in bagpipes and bagpiping so this year we’ve added two new piping events. A Swarm of Drones, Vancouver’s bagpiping collective, will host a session tent in the festival’s Celtic Village KidsZone, where you can pop in and hear them play and ask questions about anything related to the pipes – including how they are made. The second event new event is the Lowland/Border Bagpipe Pipe Workshop. Join Robert MacDonald, of as he relates the story of the Border Bagpipe and its music. He will be accompanied by Irish, Northumbrian and Scottish small-pipers as he follows the pipes from Neolithic times to today via the Picts, the Emperor Nero, the Court of the Sun King and even the DaVinci Code!
And speaking of the pipes, once again we will feature the B C Regiment Irish Pipes and Drums at our opening ceremony and at our BIG St. Pat’s Night Out party at Richard’s on Richards on Saturday (March 15th). This year they have two great pipers from Belfast in Northern Ireland - Andrew Carlisle, who is winning championships and competitions on a continuing basis and Jimmy Knox, a Pipe Major with some 17 years Service with the Royal Irish Regiment.
Our BIG St. Pat’s Night Out party at Richard’s on Richards features Celtic Fiddle Festival - an unbelievable line up of talent with the likes of Kevin Burke (Patrick Street - Ireland), Christian Lemaître (Brittany), André Brunet (La Bottine Souriante - Quebec) Joining them, will be guest artists Wendy MacIsaac (Cape Breton) and Chrissy Crowley (Cape Breton). As well, our friends with the BC Regiment Pipes & Drums will open the evening and the Penk O’Donnell Dancers will show you what stepdancing is all about.
Tim Readman, Artistic Director,
Edgewater Casino CelticFest Vancouver