Goderich Celtic Roots Festival Wins Festivals and Events Ontario Award

by Bob Montgomery

The Goderich Celtic Roots Festival has a little swagger as it prepares to launch its 32nd annual Festival this August.

Artistic Director and General Manager Cheryl Prashker says they were thrilled to find out recent that the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival has been recognized by Festival and Events Ontario. What the award means is they're one of the top one hundred festivals in Ontario. So they're very happy about that. She says no one had ever nominated them before, but the Festival and Events Ontario organization is an amazing group that provides events and festival all kinds of information about what's going on in the province and what grants might be available to them.

Prashker says she also knows first hand what an amazing event the Celtic Festival is because her first time at the Festival was as a performer. “What happens is you come here for the week to teach as part of the Celtic College that happens the week leading up to the Celtic Festival and they also have a kids camp for ages four to twelve. So the musicians get to come here for a week, they get to live among the people of the town, we billet them in local homes and they get to know the other musicians who are there for the week as well so it's a very unique opportunity for the musicians to get to know the people of Goderich as well as their fellow musicians and be part of an experience they don't find anywhere else.” She says many of musicians actually call the Festival the next year and ask if they can come back to Goderich to play in the Festival the next year.

The Celtic College starts on Monday August the 5th and runs until the 9th and the Festival runs from Friday the 9th of August until the 11th. More information can be found on the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival web page.