Even A Bit of Rain Couldn't Put A Damper On The 32nd Goderich Celtic Roots Festival

by Bob Montgomery

One of the co-founders of the Celtic Roots Festival says this year's event was one of their best and they've had a lot of great events.

Warren Robinson shared that the festival was founded when a group of teachers at the high school in Goderich were singing and one of their members, George Young, passed away at the age of 49. They decided to have a fundraising concert to raise money for a scholarship in his honour. They hoped maybe five hundred people might come out. They were wrong. Over three and a half thousand people showed up over the weekend. They realized they were on to something so they had a second one and they were on their way.

It really took off after year four when a few of the performers said they liked everything about the festival except the sound, which is a pretty significant part. They went to a North American Folk Alliance Conference to find the best sound man they could and from that day on the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival has been known for world class sound. He says that sound is important to the musicians as well as their audience. If they can hear themselves well, they play well. Robinson says one thing they don't have that most festivals do is a terrible problem with sound bleed, which is when the music on one stage interferes with the music on another stage. Things are set up in their park behind the Parkhouse Restaurant and the sound people are so good that there is no sound bleed.

Something else that was important to Robinson was breadth. He wanted a good mix between the old masters and the young lions, some old proven veterans and some up and comers and balance things like vocal harmonies with fiddle-driven stuff. He also felt it was critical to invite the best people. “One of the things we really worked towards was making sure that the musicians that we hire are also good human beings so that they react well with our friends and families because we billet, we don't want to give anybody someone to billet who's just not a nice person.” Over the years, his musicians and their families have developed great relationships. In fact, one family has twice gone to Scotland and Ireland to see the children of the musicians get married. He repeated what one of the musicians said this weekend, “You immediately feel you're part of the community.” When those musicians go home they tell other musicians, with the hope that they will want to come to the Celtic Festival too. 

Robinson says the billeting started right from the beginning and it was purely out of necessity because Goderich only had one hotel and a couple of motels. They were bringing in forty artists by themselves so they would take up all of the rooms and not leave anything for their patrons. It was also an economic necessity because he was starting out with a grand total of $10,000 that his mother left him.

Robinson shared that they had a celebration when it was all over Sunday night and everyone was on the stage dancing and singing and having a great time. At least six of them told him they'll come back for as long as he'll let them. It is truly a unique experience for the performers and for the audience.