The South Coast Celtic Fest
offers you hands-on instruction in musical instruments, Celtic crafts, language,
singing, genealogy, dancing, and so much more. Held at the SWOCC Hales Center on
Saturday, May 3, 2014, the Celtic Fest is a daylong celebration of music and
culture from the Celtic nations. This year, the festival boasts 24 workshops at
an affordable $15 all-workshop adult ticket price. Thanks to a generous grant
from Coos County Cultural Coalition, all-workshop passes for kids 12 and under
are discounted to only $5 each.
Craft workshops include
Gail Elber’s “Carve a Welsh Love Spoon”. Learn the meaning of symbols on love
spoons and carve your own simple love spoon to take home. Kids will enjoy
Charlotte Pierce’s workshop “Make a Leprechaun Box”, where they will use flashy
materials to attract their own sprightly elf (parents will also receive their
own special instructions – all material included). Participants in the “Making a
Celtic Knot Journal” will discover how Celtic knots are drawn and will leave
with their own knot-embossed journal.
If you like Celtic music,
build your skills with hands-on instruction. Ric Morrisonn will lead a workshop
on how to play the bodhran, the Irish drum. Nick Metcalf, local whistle
manufacturer, will cover the basics of how to play the Irish whistle including
breath control, finger exercises, and ornamentation used in Irish music. Other
music workshops include Dissecting the Concertina, Maypole Dancing, A Tour of
Obscure Bagpipes & Regional Styles of Bagpipe Music, Pub Song sing-along,
Ceili Dancing, and “Let’s Waulk the Tweed!”, lead by evening concert
performers Nancy Johnson and Kitchen Ceilidh. Traditionally, simple and rhythmic
“waulking songs” were sung by Scottish women as they beat newly woven tweed
cloth on a table to soften it, a process called fulling or waulking. In this
workshop, you can join in the work and singing, or just listen and watch. Participants in music workshops are encouraged to
bring instruments and welcome to bring a recording device.
Culture workshops include
“Introduction to Irish”, where Mary Grace Brogdon urges the festival goer to
learn a little of the tongue our great grandmothers spoke and information on how
to learn more. Howard Crombie’s Basic Genealogy workshop will cover starting
your research, including records, repositories, and the Genealogical Proof
Standard. Frank Murphy will present information about the history, culture and
construction of a curragh, a traditional boat from Ireland. Frank will bring a
curragh to display that was built recently at the Coos Bay Boat Building
Center.
There will also be plenty
of storytelling workshops where you’ll hear stories of growing up in Ireland and
Scotland, as well as ancient tales of fairy folk.
Other festival activities
include two stages of free entertainment from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. An all-comers
session will run from 4:00 to 6:30, which OCCI will serve up a Celtic-themed
dinner starting at 5:00 pm. The buffet is $7 at the door.
An evening concert will
begin at 7:00 pm with a grand entry from the Oregon Coast Pipes & Drums
Band. Then taking the stage will be Kitchen Ceilidh, a women’s a cappella group
singing traditional and current songs in Scottish Gaelic, as well as sharing
Scots Gaelic Cultural traditions. The headliner is Molly’s Revenge, a dynamic,
acoustic Celtic band known for its unique and infectious enthusiasm. The classic
combination of bagpipes, whistle, and fiddle, with a backdrop of guitar,
mandola, and bodhran guarantees an enjoyable experience for all fans of Scottish
and Irish music. Evening concert tickets are $20.
Tickets are available at
Off the Record at 2227B Newmark North Bend, Books by the Bay at 1875 Sherman in
North Bend, the Coos Bay Visitors’ Center on Hwy 101 in Coos Bay, or at Bandon
Mercantile at 535 S. 2nd Street in Bandon.
The festival is generously
sponsored by the following local businesses and organizations: Sol Coast
Companies, Gold Coast Security, E.L. Edwards Realty, O’Bryan Advanced Dentistry,
Edward Jones of Coos Bay & North Bend, Hough, MacAdam & Wartnik, Farr’s
True Value Hardware, Kerbo Engineering, Oregon Garden Art, MacDuff Design, Coos
County Cultural Coalition, The Mill Casino, and the Coastal Celtic Society. For
additional information, contact Stacy Rose 541.808.1002 rosecontra@gmail.com
Thanks very much,
541.808.1002
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