The Goderich Celtic Roots Festival is back this year.
Artistic Director and General Manager, Cheryl Prashker, said after two years of virtual festivals, they are delighted to bring back their in-person Festival as well as the Celtic College and Kids Camp.
“The good thing is a lot of the artists that we promised to be here in 2020 were still available, not all of them, but a good bunch of them were still available, so I was able to tap into them and put together a list of artists quickly,” said Prashker.
She said planning the College was a little more difficult because they weren't sure what the Avon Maitland Board's protocol would be around using the Goderich High School. She adds, another challenge was billeting all of their performers because they weren't sure how people would feel about having them in their homes. But she says, so far, that hasn't been a problem either.
This will be the 30th annual event and something new this year is the winners, picked by last year's audience, from the virtual festival as part of the Robinson Emerging Artist Showcase will be performing in this year's Festival. Prashker explained people applied to enter the Showcase.
“Then we presented the top ten during our virtual festival," she said. "We asked the audience, who would would you like to see be here in person and they chose the Japanese band, O’Jizo and Clíodhna Ní Aodáin, from Switzerland, who is a cello player.”
The Celtic College and Kids Camp runs from August 1st to August 5th and the three-day Celtic Roots Festival runs from August 5th to the 7th at Lion's Harbour Park on the shores of Lake Huron.
More information about the Festival and the line-up of performers can be found the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival website.