Planning is still in the early phases, but we can confirm that the Glengarry Bhoys will be headlining this year’s event!  See you in July!!

Please keep checking this website for all the updates!  We will continue to announce events, performers and everything Celtfest related as they are planned.

Celtfest 2009 in association with the Ottawa Valley School of Traditional Music is pleased to offer a variety of music and dance workshops this year. A prerequisite for all workshops will be some fundamental working knowledge of your instrument such as basic notes and scales or basic chord patterns.

Workshops are $15 for the first plus $10 per workshop for each additional one.

ALL registrations will be at the Old Town Hall in Almonte. Please register (and pre-registrants check in) 30 minutes in advance as many of the workshops will be held in other locations and you’ll need a few minutes to get there (locations: OTH - Old Town Hall, MMW - Mississippi Mills MusicWorks, TBA - to be announced ).

A half-hour break is provided between workshops to allow participants to move between locations, grab a coffee or ice cream, or just enjoy some of the other Celtfest activities going on in town.

The Celtfest committee appreciates the participation of all instructors in our program and the support of Mississippi Mills MusicWorks and the Ottawa Folklore Centre.

CLICK HERE for all the details!

Check out the Schedule Page to see the most up to date schedule of events for the 2009 Almonte Celtfest!  Lots of great entertainment for the entire family!

The Town Pants

The Kyle Felhaver Band with The Fusion Dancers

Everything Ftiz

The Ryans

The Monday Night Fiddlers

Strung is a new project, but it’s no “baby band”. Doug Cox, Tony McManus, April Verch and Cody Walters are the artists collectively known as Strung. These artists share more than 50 years of experience and choose their projects carefully. Doug Cox is described by the Boston Globe as “one of the worlds most expressive Dobro players.” BBC Radio described Tony McManus as “The finest guitarist Scotland has ever produced.” And Sing Out! Magazine said “April Verch…is a marvel to behold,” and the Ottawa Citizen detailed, “Her voice…swings easily from contemporary country to traditional gospel…her fiddling at once articulate, crisp and spunky - is an endless delight.”

April Verch

returns to her Ottawa Valley roots, this February night.

For a “new world” country, Canada has a lot of different fiddle traditions, Some are centuries old and some are being born right now. April Verch’s musical roots are in a tradition that not even hard-core folk music listeners can tell you much about. Like Cape Breton or Quebec, the settlers in the Ottawa Valley were Scottish and French, but unlike them, the settlers were just as likely to be Irish, German or Polish. After two hundred years of playing together, a very special and unique repertoire, style of playing, and stepdance have evolved. April grew up in this tradition, step-dancing to traditional fiddling for three long years before her parents finally relented and got her the fiddle she’d been asking for when she turned six. The longest, and probably hardest, part of her path as an artist led her to becoming the first woman to win both the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddle and Open Fiddle Championships.

Songs from the new CD, Band of Gypsies, can be heard online at http://www.myspace.com/strungcanada

Strung delivers an eclectic blend of roots music styles with an expressive depth and intensity. “Strung is a [group] you want to keep an ear out for, and one you want to be in the room with when they get deeper into the music.” - Dugg Simpson.

The Almonte concert is in support of Almonte’s Celtfest 2009, a celebration of the music, song and dance of the Ottawa Valley, scheduled for July 10-12^th.

Tickets $20.00 at The Miller’s Tale (613-256-9090) Mississippi MusicWorks (613-256-7464) Couples Corner (613-256-1171)

Almonte’s  Celtfest 2009 (July 10-12) is proud to host the exceptional trio Strung in a fundraising concert that will warm the heart and soul on a February night.

Strung is April Verch, Doug Cox and Tony McManus

April Verch returns to her Ottawa Valley roots, this February night following her tour with ‘Strung’  to the U.K and their appearance at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections Festival, and a BBC Radio recording.

April Verch’s voice swings easily from contemporary country to traditional gospel - her fiddling at once articulate, crisp and spunky  is an endless delight  –OTTAWA CITZEN

For a  new world country, Canada has a lot of different fiddle traditions, Some are centuries old and some are being born right now. April Verch’s musical roots are in a tradition that not even hard-core folk music listeners can tell you much about. Like Cape Breton or Quebec, the settlers in the Ottawa Valley were Scottish and French, but unlike them, the settlers were just as likely to be Irish, German or Polish. After two hundred years of playing together, a very special and unique repertoire, style of playing, and  stepdance have evolved. April grew up in this tradition, step-dancing to traditional fiddling for three long years before her parents finally relented and got her the fiddle she’d been asking for when she turned six. The longest, and probably hardest, part of her path as an artist led her to becoming the first woman to win both the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddle and Open Fiddle Championships.
It was April’s time spent studying music at Berklee College of Music in Boston (under Matt Glaser and Darol Anger) that first lead her to blend together different forms of traditional music to form her own distinct sound. She then launched her professional career by winning the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddle Champion and the Canadian Open Fiddle Champion titles (the first and only woman to win both). In addition to her vigorous touring schedule, she is in great demand for her teaching skills at workshops, master classes and music camps. April has released seven recordings to date, her 2001 Rounder Records release earned a JUNO nomination for ���Best Roots/Traditional Album���. Her most recent release, ‘Steal The Blue’ (2008), was co produced by Stephen Mougin of the Sam Bush Band and Jon Weisberger

April Verch is an utterly unique performer, whose high-energy brand of musicianship inevitably brings audiences to their feet, whether at a folk festival in Finland, a concert hall like the Kennedy Center, a bluegrass festival in Oklahoma, or a Celtic festival in California.

Doug Cox

“This virtuoso brings the Dobro into the drawing room and the concert hall. It’s no longer just a case of country backup, it’s a front-and-centre solo instrument.” —JURGEN GOTHE, CBC’s Discdrive

Doug Cox is a Folk da Vinci. ���Jack of all trades��� sounds more folky, but the truth is he���s mastered a number of them. As an artist, he���s earned an enviable reputation on five of the bigger continents, playing on some of the most respected stages in roots music. His most recent project, with Salil Bhatt, is being favourably compared to Ry Cooder���s recording with Salil���s father Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. The ���da Vinci��� element refers to the way his own music is an organic part of a much larger life. It starts with home and his family and also includes touring, composing, teaching, programming a major festival, co-producing a growing catalogue of musical ���how to��� DVDs and being one of the most respected voices in the Canadian roots scene. His MySpace page spells out (for nearly 3,000 friends) the time he dedicates to performing and also to teaching at music camps from Kerrville to the Cotswolds and back to BC and Alaska every year. It���s the schedule of someone who chooses their projects very carefully.

Tony McManus

“The finest guitarist Scotland has ever produced��� -BBC RADIO

It���s been a little more than 50 years since guitars first started hanging around the edges of Celtic music, looking for a way into the music pipers and fiddlers had evolved over centuries. Only a handful of guitarists have found that zone to date. Dick Gaughan is one. Tony is another. His personal sense of traditional music begins in Scotland but also includes Ireland, Brittany, Galicia, Quebec, Asturies, Cape Breton and Eastern Europe. From timeless traditional pieces to the Mingus classic ���Pork Pie Hat���, his musical world is big and getting bigger all the time. There���s never been more people on the planet playing the guitar, but for a��� that, few on any instrument in any generation ever find a way of listening and a way of playing that strikes a punter as a distinct musical voice. Tony McManus has, and in doing so has given us all a new way to hear the heart of the music many thought they knew.

For more info : Jim Mountain Almonte Celtfest Society    jmount@trytel.com

www.almonteceltfest.com

The Celtfest 2008 Committee wishes to acknowledge and thank all volunteers, performers and audiences, who contributed their time, energy, and participation. Festival events offered much variety including  Movie Night on Thursday July 10^th  when we “waked” Ned Devine, to Friday July 11^th and the excellent Stone Fence Theatre troupe’s tribute to Mac Beattie MC’d by Charlie Kitt.  Saturday the 12^th’s Magick Day  included faeries, wands, a river goddess, stories and a musical procession, and later, well attended music workshops, the Kick-Off Concert and After Hours Show. Sunday, July 13^th  the morning rain faded just in time for the Main Festival from Noon onward, with 10 acts of outstanding performances, plus Highland Games, Gaelic football, and Rugby demonstrations, artisans and food booths which added atmosphere to the site.

It was all a great celebration of music, song, and dance unfolding in the outstanding venues of Gemmill Park, the Old Town Hall, and the community of Almonte. A survey of the audience showed visitors from Germany, Denmark, the U.K., Atlantic provinces, Florida, New York and as far as Washington State, and a large percentage of visitors from Ottawa attending also. There were positive reviews from all.

 Special thanks to the Town of Mississippi Mills Council and Staff, the Mississippi Mills Chamber of Commerce, the MAAP Committee, area businesses and media, the Royal Canadian Legion, Almonte Branch, Puppets Up,and all those volunteers who made this event possible. And finally, to those who collectively willed the rain to go away, an extra special note of appreciation.

Jim Mountain
Almonte Celtfest Committee

Yet another sporting element returns to this year’s Almonte Celtfest. On Sunday July 13, 2008 at 2:30 PM, in an appropriate “All Celtic” rugby match up, the local Lanark Highlanders will take on the Ottawa Irish.  Lucky spectators can witness these two Eastern Ontario Division I rivals battle it out for the “Celtfest Cup”.

The Lanark Highlanders, who play out of Perth, draw players from all over Lanark County and the Valley. The Highlanders were formed in 2005 and quickly asserted themselves in the Eastern Ontario Rugby Union, winning the 2006 Division II title. The Highlanders now play in Division I and are currently in second place.

Expect to see a hard hitting, hard running Highlanders team who have earned the reputation of being one of the least congenial teams on the field, and one of the most hospitable off of it.

The Ottawa Irish have a long and storied history dating back to 1963 and have produced some of the finest rugby players in Canada, principally Al Charon who was long time member of the National Men’s Team (over 70 caps, some which have been as Captain) as well as playing for the British Barbarians and other invitational All-World teams. He played professional rugby in Britain and France since December 1997 – and made a remarkable comeback from a serious knee injury to Captain the Canadian side in the 2004 World Cup. Expect the Irish to bring their Celtic pride; this is an event they will not want to lose.

The Celtic Cup promises not to disappoint, for old rugby fans or those new to the game, come on out and witness this exciting ‘Celtic’ sporting experience.