For nine days in October, Cape Breton will be alive with music and visitors as the seventh annual Celtic Colours International Festival takes over the island. From October 10-18, Celtic Colours will present hundreds of local and International artists in 44 concerts scheduled in 33 Island communities. Venues range from an 18th Century reconstructed French Chapel to state of the art performance facilities and community halls. What the venues have in common is 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 a celebration of living culture that is the Celtic Colours International Festival.
The Festival opens Friday, October 10 with a Gala Concert at Centre 200 in Sydney featuring Spain’s Carlos Nuñez, who was such a hit at last year’s Festival; the sensational Irish band, Lunasa; Cape Breton’s award-winning Natalie MacMaster; the Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association and this year’s Artists in Residence – strings-master, Dave MacIsaac and one of Scotland’s foremost Gaelic singers, Mairi MacInnes.
As has become the custom, Celtic Colours will wrap up with the World’s Biggest Square Dance in Baddeck. This closing concert, scheduled for October 18, presents local dance traditions with music provided by some of our finest dance players in an environment that also showcases a variety of international performers.
Other featured performers for Celtic Colours 2003 include: Singer/songwriter Tommy Sands and the Kane Sisters, from Ireland; Bachué, Margaret Bennett, Karine Polwart, Donnie Murdo MacLeod, Mary Ann Kennedy, and Anna Massie from Scotland; Flook from England; Tim O’Brien, John Doyle, Dirk Powell and Christine Balfa, Ferintosh, and Bohola from the US; Welsh singer Siân James; and Pipeline from Germany.
Canadian artists featured this year include the Barra MacNeils, the McDades (Alberta), J.P. Cormier, Buddy MacMaster, Beolach, Gordie Sampson, Mary Jane Lamond, the Men of the Deeps, A Crowd of Bold Sharemen (Nfld), Dave Gunning, Cynthia MacLeod (PEI), Cape Breton Chamber Orchestra, Cape Breton Chorale, David Greenberg, Scott Macmillan, Jennifer Roland, John Allan Cameron, Wendy MacIsaac, Jackie Dunn MacIsaac, Winnie Chafe, Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association, Buddy MacDonald and John Ferguson, Wally MacAulay, Cyril MacPhee, Glenn Graham, Kimberley Fraser, Triskele, Kendra MacGillivray, Jerry Holland, Kinnon & Betty Lou Beaton, Carl MacKenzie, Brenda Stubbert, John Campbell, Andrea Beaton, Ian MacDougall, Stephanie Wills, Mairi Rankin, Mac Morin and more.
The Celtic Colours International Festival schedule is available at www.celtic-colours.com.
Tickets go on sale July 14 through Select-A-Seat and can also be purchased online through the Celtic Colours International Festival website. For tickets phone 1-888-355-7744. For Festival information phone 1-877-285-2321. For accommodations phone 1-800-565-0000.
The Celtic Colours International Festival greatly appreciates the financial contributions of Nova Scotia’s Department of Tourism and Culture, the Canadian government through ECBC/ACOA, the Department of Canadian Heritage, Cape Breton Credit Unions and media sponsors CBC Maritimes and the Cape Breton Post.
