Celtic Colours communities, venues announced for 2018

Although it’s only been a few months since last year’s Celtic Colours International Festival wrapped up, staff of the award-winning event is hard at work putting the pieces together for its twenty-second edition.

“While we can’t yet announce the roster of artists who will be performing at this year’s Festival, we are happy to reveal the venue schedule for 2018,” said Mike MacSween, Executive Director of Celtic Colours. “We have completed the process of scheduling our venues a bit earlier this year in order to assist our customers in planning their Celtic Colours experience. This is especially welcome news to our fans from some distance, who, of course, must reserve accommodations in advance.”

One of the unique things about Celtic Colours is its decentralized nature. This is part of the design of the Festival. Since the very beginning, communities all over Cape Breton Island host concerts and workshops while the fall leaves are at their most brilliant and traveling around the Island offers one breathtaking view after another. Concerts are held in the communities where the culture has been nurtured for hundreds of years, providing context for the roots of the music and celebrating each community’s contribution to the island’s living Celtic culture.

The schedule for 2018 includes a mix of nighttime concerts and afternoon matinees, including four licensed shows and the nightly Festival Club at Colaisde na Gàidhlig / The Gaelic College in St. Ann’s, for those 19 years and over.

Iconic Celtic Colours venues like the historic Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay and the celebrated Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site are back, as well as some of the Island’s most beautiful churches, and an array of schools, state-of-the-art performance facilities, and community, parish and fire halls in 34 communities around the Island.

While the venues vary in primary function and size—from the hundred seat North River Community Hall to Centre 200 in Sydney with a capacity of thousands—they share in common the prominent place each holds in the community it serves. The Celtic culture of music, dance and story-telling lives on in these communities and provides the foundation for the celebration of living culture that is the Celtic Colours International Festival.

The Celtic Colours International Festival will open this year with a concert in Port Hawkesbury on October 5 and close in Sydney on October 13 with a concert at Centre 200. In total, there will be 49 concerts taking place in Aspy Bay, Baddeck, Belle Côté, Big Pond, Boisdale, Boularderie, Chéticamp, Christmas Island, D’Escousse, Eskasoni, Glace Bay, Glendale, Ingonish, Inverness, Iona, Judique, L’Ardoise, Louisbourg, Lower River Inhabitants, Mabou, Marion Bridge, Membertou, New Waterford, North River, North Sydney, Port Hawkesbury, Port Morien, St. Ann’s, St. Peter’s, Sydney, Sydney Mines, Sydney River, Wagmatcook, and Whycocomagh.

For the full list of concert venues and the communities where they will take place, visit celtic-colours.com.