The Celtic Roots Festival in Goderich will be a virtual event again this year.
Artistic Director and General Manager, Cheryl Prashker, says the pandemic has, for the second year, cancelled the Celtic College and the live Festival. But Prashker says the virtual Festival will run on the evening of Friday, August 6th and during the day on Saturday, August 7th. Prashker says the virtual Festival will be free, but there will be a tip jar, with the proceeds from that going to the participating artists. And she says they have artists from all over the world lined up, including a couple of old favourites and then some new ones that she's anxious to showcase to the Festival audience.
"A couple of old favourites and then some new ones, which I'm excited to showcase to the audiences. And the musicians have all gotten used to doing this online and they're excited to do it. We will have one artist, Daoiri Farrell, who has been to the Festival before, he's going to do his set live from Ireland."
Prashker says they're also adding something new this year. It's the Robinson Emerging Artist Showcase, named after Festival co-founder, Warren Eleanor Robinson. Prashker says it will be an annual event and artists from around the world have submitted applications.
"Artists from, literally around the world, have sent in applications. The judges that we've chosen will choose ten artists. Those ten artists will showcase throughout the weekend, they'll have ten or fifteen minutes and it'll be the audience that helps us judge the top two performers."
Prasker says those top two performers will be mentored through the year and appear on the main stage at next year's Festival. She adds more information about this year's Festival and the link to the Festival will be posted on the Goderich Celtic Festival web site.