Celtic Coulors Music Festival

Celtic Clours Music Festival

Cape Brenton, Nova Scocia, Canada

October 13-19 2019

I have been aware fo this festival for 8 or 9 years and I finally got here.  I went with 5 other people.  We left from Philly, flew to Halifax, rented a car and drove 4 hours to Cape Brenton.  The festival was booked throughout the island which meant that we had to drive two three hours to each event.  Everything we heard was fantastic but we didnt hear enough music for my taste.  I wanted to be in a small fishing village and wander from bar to bar to listen to the talent of the locals.

13Th- SU- Canada- we drove up to Newark and took a plane to Halifax.  There are 6 of us.  We rented two cars and drove to Cape Benton. We will be here for 6 days for the Celtic Colors International Music Festival.  It should be great fun.  I got a text from Debbie S.  A woman in my apartment killed herself last night.  She didn't seem tortured to me.  But some people are masters at masking their problems.

14- M- Canada- Cape Brenton-  Happy Thanksgiving in Canada. We explored all damn day today.  I don't know how many miles we traveled but we were gone 12 hours today.  We started at the Gaelic University and listened to some great musicians play.  Then we headed up the highway and stopped at one artisan store after another.  We had panedkeok for lunch.  It's a dutch crepe and mine had apples, back and lots of ginger.  We made it all the way up to Neil's Harbor and through the national park. The leaves were stunning as they were at the peak of their fall foliage and i took hundreds of photos. I bought a handmade glass bead pin.  On the way home, we took a ferry across a canal and the ride lasted about a minute.  We ended the day at some dive bar and had great fun with the locals.

15- TU- Canada- We had a great day.  We made our way to Judique, about a two hour drive from our AirBnB.  We had lunch at the Celtic Interpretive Center and were treated to a performance by a fiddle player.  From time to time, someone from the audience got up and did a little jig for every one's pleasure. We chatted up the wait staff and turns out they are mostly from the graham family and that pulled at Mary's heart to think that they may be related one way or another. We had tickets to an evening show and the performers were fantastic.  About ten performers entertained us and for a finale, all ten of them came out together and just lit the place on fire with all of their energy.

16- W- Canada- It was a beautiful, beautiful fall day.  The sun was intensely bright.  It was windy and a bit chilly.  We made our way to a peak of the island to see the bluffs and the cliffs of the ocean.   We attempted to do other things today but we got lost which annoyed the hell out of us. We stopped at a famous pub for dinner and then we went to the local theatre for another performance, Close the The Floor.  This performance was better than last night's show.  There was one duo of an other woman in an apron and jeans.  She played the fiddle and jigged as well.  And she had a younger partner who could really dance.  He was so intriguing, it was almost magical.  He places sand on the stage floor which created an alluring, organic sound to his footwork.

17- TH- Canada- We went to the Big Spruce Brewery and I loved every moment of our time here.  The beer was great.  The crowd was great fun and the music was wild.  It was a small place and every inch was packed with people who wanted nothing more than to be here.  We wore our ANTI-TRUMP TEE SHIRTS and several people wanted to take our photos.  We were celebrities.  Unfortunately, I got sick on the way to the next brewery, Breton Brewery. I am having a problem with my liver and I sometimes can't process alcohol.  This was one of those days.But I felt better by the time we got to our evening performance:  Women of Song. All of the performers were outstanding but the last woman, the tall old woman, Laura Smith, brought the house down. She closed with her rendition of My Bonny, a song that never interested me. OMG, she was great.  On the way back to our airBnB, I got car sick.  The day beat me up a little bit but it was still a great day.

18- F- Canada- We got up too early for my taste and made our way back to Halifax.  It took forever to get here.  While the others went shopping for the afternoon, I stayed in my hotel room and did nothing.  We met up for dinner at the Gahan Brewery.  The beers were great and the food was wonderful and it was a perfect way to end our trip.

19- SA- Canada/PA- we traveled all damn day and it was good to get home.  I came home to the funeral reception to the woman who killed herself earlier this week.  Apparently, she shot herself and people heard the gun shot but didn't investigate what happened.  she was found the next day.  It must have been awful around there this week. I am back to the reality of life.