Saline Celtic Festival To Offer Music and Dance Workshops July 8

The Saline Celtic Festival will offer music and dance workshops from 6 to 7:15 p.m. July 8 at .

Three of the instructors – Dan MacDonald, Brian Taheny, and Ross Griffiths – are from the group North Atlantic Drift, and will perform at the festival. The musicians play Irish, Scottish and Cape Breton music on Cape Breton fiddle, Sligo fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, Uilleann pipes, Highland pipes, whistles and bodhran.

MacDonald will teach intermediate and advanced Cape Breton Fiddling, including what makes Cape Breton tunes, bowing and ornaments unique to the genre.

Taheny will teach intermediate Celtic Mandolin featuring Irish tunes; this is a workshop for expanding a repertoire, or crossing the bridge from bluegrass/folk to Celtic.

Griffiths will teach beginner/intermediate Penny Whistle, an entry-level workshop with basic tunes and techniques, for folks who want to get involved in playing Irish music.

 Cori Smith, who teaches all levels of fiddle in Saline, will teach intermediate Scottish Fiddle, taking familiar fiddle tunes and teaching some of the bowing patterns and ornamentations that define the Scottish fiddle style. This class will expand the horizons of bluegrass/folk /old time fiddlers.

Recording equipment is welcome and encouraged at these workshops.

Local Irish dancer and instructor Delia Phillips will teach Beginning Irish Step Dance, the very basic steps in hard shoe Irish step dancing. Participants should wear leather-soled shoes, or well-worn tennis shoes. 

Registration is available by using Paypal online at www.salineceltic.org or by downloading a registration form. The $8 workshop fee includes entrance to the Red Dragon Tent for Pub Night, where the band Road Kilt will play at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.; and the 5th Annual “Mr. Pretty Legs in a Kilt” Competition will be held at 8:30 p.m., hosted by Beth Patterson, who will then perform at 10:45 p.m.

A multi-instrumentalist, Patterson is foremost a player of the eight and ten stringed Irish bouzoukis (adaptations of a traditional Greek instrument). An active studio musician and producer, she is a prolific songwriter, teaches bouzouki, and is currently writing an instructional book for the instrument.

The July 9 festival runs from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., kicking off with a 5K Run from Saline Middle School to Mill Pond Park. The day will feature jousting knights on horseback, clan encampments, living history reenactments, music, dance, pipe bands, weaving demonstrations, sheepdogs, rugby games, an Irish Song and Dance competition, food and drink, Celtic merchandise, children's activities, and Millie the Mill Pond Monster and her two offspring.

Highland athletes will compete in Heavy and Light Weight for Distance, Weight Over Bar, Sheaf Toss, Caber Toss, and Braemar and Open Stone; while visitors can get a taste of Highland sports by attempting the Haggis Hurl, Celtic Clobber or Golf Chip.

Tickets for the July 8 Pub Night at Mill Pond Park are $5 at the gate.

Tickets at the gate on July 9 are $5 for ages 13 to 17; $15 for adults ($10 when purchased online); $10 for seniors and veterans. Active military, and children 12 and under are free. After 8 p.m., the cost is $5. 

Tickets may also be purchased in advance at various locations in Saline; at the City Hall office counter; and at the Celtic Festival Office in .

For more information visit www.salineceltic.org.