This coming weekend is Thanksgiving, but it’s more like Christmas for fans of driving fiddles, swirling bagpipes, ethereal Irish harps and spine-tingling singing as Celtic Colours International Festival takes over Cape Breton and welcomes performers and visitors from around the globe.
Counting the virtual version of the event during the pandemic, this year marks the 30th installment of nine-day event, which every year is nearly impossible to summarize in a single column, but has an enviable track record for carefully curated, can’t-miss concerts and events.
Thankfully, there’s another Centre Stage column before the event comes to a close at its 30 and Thriving: A Celtic Colours East Coast Party on Saturday, Oct. 17 at Sydney’s Centre 200, and even that final day is jam-packed with daytime shows and activities: from The Pipers’ Ceilidh at festival HQ at the Gaelic College in St. Anns to an oatcake-making workshop in Prime Brook that now has me craving one like nobody’s business.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Why think about the end when the party hasn’t even started yet, right where the Island begins with The Unusual Suspects of Celtic Colours at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre this Friday night?
The beauty of the Unusual Suspects shows is that they’re a mini-festival unto themselves, and the 30th Celtic Colours edition is one for the ages. Scottish musical directors Corrina Dawn (Hewat) and Dave Milligan have assembled a 25-member big band with stellar traditional musicians from across Nova Scotia and Canada, and across the Atlantic Ocean, plus special guests fiddler/dancer Wendy MacIsaac and Gaelic singer Mary Jane Lamond.
To list everyone would take up half this space, and to single anyone else out would be a disservice to the rest but let it be said that the lineup is truly epic in all the right ways, with the traditional players you’d expect joined by cello, trumpet, saxophone and trombone to create a sound you’re unlikely to hear in one place again.
Except, of course, on Saturday night at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay, where there’s an encore concert of the Unusual Suspects of Celtic Colours, but maybe it’s best to catch this astonishing assembly of musicians in Port Hawkesbury before they’ve had a chance to partake of the late-night Festival Club at the Gaelic College. Either way, you can see the full Unusual Suspects lineup on the festival website, so prepare to be amazed.
Also according to the website, most of the Saturday evening concerts are sold out – apart from the encore at the Savoy – so if you haven’t signed up for Dave Gunning & J.P. Cormier’s O’er the Mountain show at Boularderie School or Pjila’si: A Wagmatcook Welcome at the Wagmatcook Culture and Heritage Centre with ace guitarist Tony McManus, fiddler and singer Rose Morrison and the trio of Emma Stevens, Carter Chiasson and Heather Cameron, you may have to do a little detective work to find tickets.
But if your evening plans are set, there is a wealth of Saturday daytime events and activities, like a 9:30 a.m. step dance workshop in Whycocomagh to get your heart pumping, a 10 a.m. driving and walking tour of Isle Madame lighthouses, an afternoon open mic session at the Baddeck Yacht Club, and a free, all-ages Queer Ceilidh at the Sydney Anchor Yout Space at 4 p.m. with Eskasoni Two-Spirit drag star Cicero Crow and Unama’ki Gaelic singer and fiddler Bradley Murphy.
Sunday events that aren’t sold out include the Thanksgivin’er blowout at Membertou Trade & Convention Centre with an award-winning lineup of Lennie Gallant, Beolach, the MacArthur Dancers and the well-travelled duo of Shetland fiddler Kevin Henderson (Fiddlers’ Bid, Nordic Fiddlers Bloc) and New England pianist Neil Pearlman (Pine Tree Flyers, Farsan).
And a personal favourite annual event is the Whycocomagh concert, this year titled Down Where the River Flows, after a song by Cape Breton Music Hall of Famer Buddy MacDonald, who also hosts the evening with guests Andrea Beaton, Troy MacGillivray & Denmark’s Tove de Fries as a trio, and Scottish Gaelic singer Kathleen MacInnes accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Mike Vass.
Of course, Sunday during the daytime is also a Thanksgiving feast of dinners, displays, markets and activities, with Cape Breton hospitality in full effect, including a few open house events Island heritage churches; Songs, Stories and Friendship – A Mi’kmaq Cultural Experience on the Skye River Trail in We’koqma’q First Nation with the White Bear Drum Group, and a Sunday Afternoon Ceilidh at the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre in Judique.
That’s just the first three days, and I already feel exhausted, but as Celtic Colours co-founder Max MacDonald always says, “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” so pace yourself wisely, and create your own festival roadmap and schedule at celtic-colours.com.
You can’t talk about Thanksgiving weekend without also giving a shout-out to Cape Breton’s longest-running alternative music festival Gobblefest, which is now into its fourth decade with its 31st edition from Oct. 9 to 12.
A presentation of Caper Radio, 107.3 CJBU-FM, Gobblefest is a pretty DIY affair, befitting its indie origins, and details are still hard to come by as of this writing, but Breton Crafthouse on Esplanade is a key venue, including shows on Friday, Oct. 9 with Dazey, 10 Slip and Vulpine, and Saturday, Oct. 10 with Company House and Port Hawkesbury’s mighty Boojums. Also keep an eye out for fun Halifax rockers Angel Girl, wherever they may turn up on the weekend.
The most up-to-date info appears to be on the @caperradio1073 Instagram page, so look for more Gobblefest XXXI details as the weekend approaches.