Celtic Colours International Festival has announced the lineup for the 2015 edition of the event. The festival is scheduled for October 9-17, 2015 in Cape Breton, Canada.
Artists from Scotland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, USA, Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI, Nova Scotia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec, will appear on stage along with some of Cape Breton’s best singers, dancers, and players in 47 concerts taking place in venues throughout the Island.
Celtic Colours will open Friday night, October 9 in Port Hawkesbury with a concert by Celtic music star Loreena McKennitt, the String Sisters, Artists in Residence Lucy MacNeil and Liz Doherty, and Sabra MacGillivray. The 2015 Celtic Colours International Festival will conclude October 17 in Sydney with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, the Barra MacNeils and J.P. Cormier in concert at Centre 200.
The festival bringing back some audience favorites including fiddler Liz Doherty, harp-player Laoise Kelly, piper Paddy Keenan, and We Banjo 3 from Ireland; piper Fred Morrison, and Gaelic singers Kathleen MacInnes and Mary Ann Kennedy from Scotland; and Helene Blum and Harald Haugaard from Denmark. April Verch and her band return together with banjo-playing balladeer Old Man Luedecke, singer-songwriters Dave Gunning and Laura Smith, and the always entertaining Newfoundland duo Jim Payne and Fergus O’Byrne.
Additional acts include Mec Lir from Isle of Man, Old Time fiddle legend Calvin Vollrath from Alberta, Irish-American trio Open the Door for Three and the Rachel Newton Trio from Scotland. Also making their Celtic Colours debut this year are The East Pointers from PEI, Matthew Byrne, Aaron Collis and Emilia Bartellas from Newfoundland and Labrador, and the String Sisters, a powerhouse group of fiddlers from Shetland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and the US, some of whom are already old friends of the Festival.
Artists representing Cape Breton Island include Ashley MacIsaac, The Barra MacNeils, Mary Jane Lamond and Wendy MacIsaac, J.P. Cormier, Howie MacDonald, Dwayne Côté, Andrea Beaton, Kinnon and Betty Lou Beaton, Kimberley Fraser, and the Men of the Deeps.
This year Celtic Colours will honor three Cape Breton culture bearers: the Cape Breton Symphony Fiddlers, Broadcaster Ray “Mac” MacDonald, and Eskasoni fiddler Wilfred Prosper.
For more details go to celtic-colours.com. Tickets go on sale Monday, July 6 at 10AM ADT. Phone 1-888-355-7744.
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central
