KNYSNA NEWS - The organisers of the annual Knysna Celtic Festival taking place next month, sponsored by Lew Geffen/Sotheby’s Knysna, have announced the line-up for the festival’s highlight event – the Sundowners Celtic Concert.
“The concert was originally established to promote bluegrass and Celtic music, and as a showcase for local musicians like the Knysna & Districts Pipe Band, but it’s become such an enormous success that we’re now able to attract international guest performers,” says organising committee member Pipe Major Steve Collins.
The festival has become one of South Africa’s most popular Celtic gatherings, drawing pipe bands and highland dancers from Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, and KwaZulu-Natal.
Together with the concert, the event features a Massed Pipes and Drums Parade in the town’s Main Street, the country’s only street march competition, and traditional piping, drumming, and dance competitions during the annual Highland Gathering at Loerie Park.
Sundowners Celtic Concert
This year’s concert – the seventh in the series – will feature Cape Town-based traditional folk bands Jenny & The Jameses, and Blacksmith (which has played at every one of these concerts since 2012), as well as Scottish Highland dancers from Pretoria’s O'Leary Studio, and Irish dancers from Cape Town’s Celtic Dance Tapestry.
“Of course the Knysna & Districts Pipe Band will also be on stage, and we’ll be introducing our newly formed Castle Rock Ceilidh Band, too – whose members are mostly also members of the pipe band,” says Collins.
“Another very exciting addition to this year’s line-up will be the 26-piece Carpe Musicam! orchestra from George, which will perform popular Celtic music, and will then join the Knysna & Districts Pipe Band and the other musicians for an epic grand finale.”
International artists
“We’re especially looking forward to welcoming two of the world’s very best Celtic musicians to Knysna: the top Scottish harpist and composer Catriona McKay, and the award-winning Shetland fiddler Chris Stout, who’ll be joining us for the second year in a row,” says Collins.
McKay (www.catrionamckay.co.uk) was named instrumentalist of the year at the 2014 Scots Trad Music Awards.
She is renowned for exploring the limits of the clarsach (the traditional Scottish harp), and as the codesigner of the new Starfish McKay harp, with its alternative tuning pattern.
She collaborates regularly with folk, jazz, classical, and experimental artists, has appeared on stage with groups as diverse as the Moscow City Symphony and the Scottish Ensemble, and is a member of the Chris Stout Quintet, and of the leading Shetland band Fiddlers' Bid, among others.
Bagpipes and Highland dancers are the order of the day at the annual Knysna Celtic Festival, which takes place next month.
Like McKay, Stout (who was named Shetland’s young fiddler of the year for his traditional music, and young musician of the year for his abilities on the classical violin, both in 1990), is also recognised for his cutting-edge exploration of the traditions of the music in which he is grounded, and for his determination to explore new musical territories through innovation and experimentation (Wikipedia).
Collins says the Sundowners concert will run from 17:00 to 21:00 on 24 February, and that dinner will be available from a range of quality local food stalls – with wine, beer and cider from The Bell Beer Garden – during the performance.
“As usual, a portion of ticket sales will go to the Knysna Sea Cadets, which received R25 000 from us after last year’s concert.
"This brought the total we’ve raised so far for this very worthy organisation to about R125 000, and we’re hoping to match or better our 2017 donation this year,” he says.
Tickets already available
Tickets for the Sundowners concert cost R150, and are available from Sotheby’s offices in Sedgefield, Plettenberg Bay, and Knysna (Leisure Isle, Woodmill Lane, Knysna Mall, Thesen Island), and from Bosun’s Pub & Grill on George Rex Drive.
Concert tickets bought from these venues will include free daytime entrance to the Highland Gathering at Loerie Park.
ARTICLE: MARTIN HATCHUEL
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