Articles

WIN TICKETS TO SEE CELTIC THUNDER LIVE

April 2nd, 2009

SUDBURY, ON - The Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games in partnership with AEG Live want to give you a chance to win tickets to see Celtic Thunder direct from Ireland on April 21, 2009 at the Sudbury Arena. Celtic Thunder was conceived by Sharon Browne and written and arranged by Phil Coulter and designed as a contemporary exploration of Celtic music, which means it falls to the pop dance side of the spectrum more than it does to the traditional side. The show was staged, recorded, and filmed in Dublin in August of 2007 and featured five male vocalists, Damian McGinty (only 14 years old when the show was recorded), Keith Harkin, Paul Byrom, Ryan Kelly, and George Donaldson, rotating leads through a set of traditional and contemporary songs, several of them written by Coulter.

      You can win floor seats to see Celtic Thunder by purchasing your tickets for the Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games at the Sudbury Arena box office, online at www.greatersudbury.ca or charge by phone at 671-3000. The Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Higland Games will be held in Bell Park on May 22 and 23. The festival promises a day filled with Friends, Food, Fun, and Folklore. Guest to the festival will enjoy over 20 Celtic musicians, performers and musical groups from across Ontario on two stages, traditional food and vendors, the return of the Vale Inco Canadian Federation of Scottish Athletes Heavy Games, and the massed pipes and drums. New this year is the addition of a ScotDance Canada Highland Dance Competition and Friday evening concert featuring Bobby Watt's Ecosse and Juno nominated David Leask who will take to the stage in celebration of the 250th Anniversary of Robbie Burns.

      Tickets for the Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games are $15 for Friday night, $15.00 for Saturday or $25 for a festival pass. Purchase your tickets before April 18, 2009 for your chance to win. Ballots can be returned to the arena box office or Grumblers. The draw will be made at 10pm at Grumbler's on April 18.

      For more information please call 918-2601 or email sudburycelticfestival@gmail.com

Scotland Sings Program to Entertain Sudbury

March 17th, 2009

SUDBURY, ON - Tickets are on sale now for the new Scotland Sings tour which will make a stop in Sudbury on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at Grumbler’s English Pub on Regent Street. Show time is 7pm. The new program features Davy Holt with Grant Frazer. Guests will be treated to a Celtic Cabaret and Buffet in support of the Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games. Tickets are only $25.00 and are on sale at Grumbler’s.

      Davy Holt is a traditional folk singer and musician from the Central Highlands of Scotland. He is a brilliant guitarist and mandolin player, fine singer, entertainer and an excellent accompanist. Holt first performed on stage when he was 9 years old. He began appearing in many prestigious Folk Festivals around the United Kingdom. He became a professional folk musician in January 2000 joining the successful band The Reivers and at the end of that year released his first solo album “New Beginnings” on Kelvin Records. Radio and TV appearances followed and he is now one of the busiest entertainers in Scotland, particularly on the tourist circuit.

      Holt will be joined by The Romantic Voice of Scotland, Grant Frazer. Frazer is a singer, historian, and story teller. He has been touring Canada for over 25 years and has performed with Jimmy Shand, Andy Stewart, and The Corries.

      With the warmth of a smile, a story and a song, Scotland Sings is family entertainment at its best offering an exciting, enchanting, and memorable program of Celtic music, song and story including many Scottish and international favorites. (view poster)

      For more information please call 918-2601 or email sudburycelticfestival@gmail.com

Vale Inco Brings Lucky Charms to Celtic Festival

March 17th, 2009

      Sudbury, ON - The second annual Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games will be held in Bell Park on May 22 and 23, 2009. The festival promises two great days filled with “Friends, Food, Fun, and Folklore.”

      Today, Gary Holman, Public Affairs Specialist with Vale Inco presented the Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games with a cheque for $4,000.00 which will be used to sponsor the Vale Inco Canadian Federation of Scottish Athletes who are returning to the festival with the traditional heavy events featuring male and female athletes from across Ontario.

      Recently, Derek Young, the festival’s producer attended a webinar on "Sponsorship Revenue during the Economic Downturn". During the downturn, corporations are reviewing their sponsorships to see how well they fit with their corporate goals and how these sponsorships can have meaningful mutual benefit for the corporation and the event. “Corporations are looking for fresh and fun event sponsorships they can be associated with and engaged in” Young said.

      “The Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games is only a year old, but it has demonstrated that it has the ability to attract competitors, artists and tourists from far and wide”, said Gary Holman, Public Affairs Specialist with Vale Inco. “With an exciting combination of the heavy events competition, a strong line-up of Celtic music and the natural appeal of food and folklore, this event provides all of the key ingredients for great family entertainment. With that kind of spectator and participant appeal, Vale Inco is pleased to once again be a major sponsor of this event”.

      The festival kicks off Friday, May 22 with an evening concert celebrating the 250th anniversary of Robbie Burns. The concert features the return of Ecosse with Bobby Watt. Ecosse will be joined by international award winning singer/songwriter David Leask originally from Edinburgh, Scotland. The festival wraps up with a 'Celtic Sudbury Saturday Night' featuring Thunder Bay cultural icons Flipper Flanagan’s Flat Footed Four as the festival prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Irish Heritage Club of Sudbury and of course we can not forget the 250th anniversary of Guinness. Flipper Flanagan has a strong local following having toured northern Ontario for over 40 years. They last performed in Sudbury with Fred Eaglesmith at the Fraser Auditorium.

      The festival introduced Donald Donaldson as the new Chieftain of the Games. Also new this year is the addition of a ScotDance Highland Dance Competition, Grumbler’s Festival Pub, and an expanded cultural program which includes traditional Celtic entertainment, vendors, and food. Tickets are on sale now at the Sudbury Arena Box office. For more information on the 2009 Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games, please go to www.celtnorth.com or email sudburycelticfestival@gmail.com

Photo: Gary Holman, Public Affairs Specialist with Vale Inco (centre) presents a cheque for $4,000.00 to Donald Donaldson, Cheiftain of the Games (left) and Derek Young, Producer (right) to support the Vale Inco Canadian Federation of Scottish Ahletes Heavy Games being held during the Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games May 22 and 23, 2009 in Bell Park

Celtic Congratulations

      The Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games made a strong debut in Bell Park on Saturday, May 24, 2008 attracting more than 1,500 visitors and participants from across Greater Sudbury and Ontario.

      For the first time all of our local pipe bands, Scottish and Irish Singers and dancers, performers, French Canadian fiddlers and step dancers, cloggers and athletes came together to celebrate Greater Sudbury during this intercultural festival. The Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games will return to Sudbury on May 22-23, 2009 in Bell Park.

      As the festival director, I would like to thank all the people and organizations that helped make this event a success. A very special thank you to Chieftain of the Games, Greater Sudbury Police Chief Ian Davidson for lending his name to the event, his leadership, expertise, and eloquently written humorous speech that frankly described the “Celts.”

      To all the participants, vendors, and volunteers we say thank you and we look forward to your participation next year. As a local event planner, I have had a steep learning curve and was very delighted to see the guests and participants enjoying this new cultural based festival and am looking forward to entertaining Sudburians with similar events. We promised a day of friends, fun, food and folklore and from the feedback received, we delivered. Thank you!

Derek Young
Festival Director, Sudbury

Celtic Festival Makes Strong Debut

      Rae Ruff enjoyed every minute of the spectacle that unfolded before her at Bell Park Saturday afternoon.

      "I really think it's quite amazing," the Sudbury resident said from her perch on a grassy knoll as she watched a performance of Scottish step dancers, then a succession of pipe bands, all in colourful dress.

      "I love all the music and the different kilts and tartans," she said. "I'd like to find out the stories behind them all."

      Not that it was required, but Ruff also let on she brought some ethnic cred to the inaugural Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games.

      "I have a Scottish grandmother and an Irish grandfather. That ought to do it," she laughed.

      Ruff was among several hundred area residents, as well as a few dozen visitors to the city, who helped make the festival a success and all but guarantee it will be back next year, said Derek Young, the event's director.

      "We're getting lots of great feedback. People are really enjoying the day," Young said. "It's something different for the city, it's fun for people to see. The Celtic culture is a very colourful culture ... in more ways than one."

      Given an estimated 60,000 people in the city who have ties to the British Isles, Young said he was not surprised the first attempt at a festival was a success and he expects the event to grow in coming years.

      "We want to build on it every year. We want to build it into a tourism destination." (more)

Celtic festival celebrates music, culture and tradition of Scotland

      Games date back to 1500s

      As you drive up Paris Street on Saturday, don't be surprised to see a man in a kilt tossing a telephone poll-sized tree.

      Highland games date back thousands of years, originating with the Celts of Ireland. However, it was in the 11th century that the Scottish King Malcolm of Canmore solidified this form of athletics into regular competitions, as a moral booster for his troops.

      At his "wappinschaws," men competed in contests involving running, leaping, vaulting, wrestling, lifting heavy weights and putting of stones.

      It wasn't until 1574 that "tossing of ye barr" first appeared on record. The caber toss and other Scottish sports involving hefting of sheaf bags with a pitchfork over a bar and throwing 28-pound and 56-pound weights on short chains will take place in Bell Park, as part of the Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games.

      "It's the first of recent time - sort of a resurrection," said Derek Young, festival director. "This year being the city's 125th anniversary, it's a good way to promote the culture, the heritage, the founding of the city. When you look at the founding of Sudbury as a railroad city, when the CPR came through town, it was actually an invention of Scotch-born Sir Stanford Fleming."

      Census data from 2006 shows there are 60,000 people with ties to the British Isles living in Sudbury, so there should be a strong audience for the festival, Young said.

      "It just seems like this year, the timing is right to bring this sort of cultural event to the city," he added. "One of the highlights is going to be the Vale Inco Heavy Games." (more)

1st Celtic Festival and Highland Games

      Chief Ian Davidson of the Greater Sudbury Police Service is proud to hold the position of Chieftain of the 1st Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games. This event will be held on Saturday May 24th at Bell Park, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.

      This festival serves as a celebration of local Scottish and Irish communities, taking into account the cross cultural similarities with French Canadian traditions. Mass Pipe Bands will play at 1200 noon and 5 p.m. with athletic performances from the Vale Inco Scottish Heavy Games as well as local Scottish, Irish and Francophone singers, dancers and musical groups with Duncan Cameron; there will also be police static displays, all with the goal of “Fun, Friends, Food and Folklore.” Bring your family and friends, and enjoy a unique day of entertainment. (more)

Friends, Fun, Food and Folklore at Inaugural May Celtic Festival

      They are a group of people with a remarkable history and can be described as a collection of tribes with the frame of cultures, music and similarities. Their history is dotted with conflicts and battles between each tribe and their individual leaders, and some may argue that his particular legacy still exists today. They can be traced back to 600 BC. They represent 60,000 plus residents in the City of Greater Sudbury. They are the “Celts!”

      On Saturday, May 24, 2008, Bell Park will come alive with pageantry of the massed pipes and drums, the strength and brute force of the Scottish Athletes, the songs, stories and traditions passed down from our Irish, Scottish and French Canadian ancestors, and the smells of traditional meals that will bring back memories from Grandmother’s kitchen. It will be a full day of friends, fun, food, and folklore as we celebrate our Celtic Heritage during the Inaugural Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games. (more)

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