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| The Second Celtic Fusion International Music Festival got under way in Ballynahinch on Thursday night (7th August) at the Market House. The event was organised by Down District Council as part of the Community Festival Fringe program and was very well attended. The crowd took a little while to build up but the hall was full by the end of the night. | |
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The main performer was Robert Watt, world champion piper, and a selection
of friends from all over Northern Ireland, including partner Emma Culbert
on keyboards.
Robert is from Maghera in County Londonderry and he plays the bagpipes, also known as the Great Highland Bagpipe (GHB) as well as the Small Pipes (or Border Pipes) to name but a few. He is a very talented musician and will be playing in the Solo championships in Oban at the end of August |
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It was a beautiful warm evening of the kind we have come to expect over
the past couple of weeks, and the event was very well attended.
All the windows were open in the Market house and young and old turned up
as well as familiies with children, and we even had a few foreign visitors
as well.
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Robert and Emma got the proceedings under way with a selection of
Scottish tunes and Robert played the Border Pipes with Emma
accompanying him on the Accordion.
He also performed some solo work on the bagpipes to accompany the Bright Lights dancers who are no strangers to the Market House and the girls delighted us once again.. |
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Robert then introduced Davie Sloan from Ballymena who played the guitar
and sang some great folk songs.
Davie was called on several times
during the night and he finished up with Lord of the Dance which went
down well with the audience joining in.
Five musicians from the Ballymena area had got together especially for the concert and called themselves 'Celtic Confusion' in honour of the occaission. |
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They had a great repertoire and their brand of foot tapping Celtic
music was thoroughly enjoyed by an enthusiastic audience..
The talented band consisted of two fiddles, Uilleann pipes, guitar and mandolin and the Bodhran and tin whistle made an appearance as well. There was a host of talent on display in this Celtic band. |
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The Bright Lights dancers performed several more times during the
evening and they were brillliant despite the very warm atmosphere
inside the big hall.
They performed sword dancing and hornpipes as well as Scottish Country Dancing mostly accompanied by Robert Watt on the bagpipes. |
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A very talented young man called Darren Scroggie who plays the guitar,
also from Ballymena, turned up to watch the concert and was asked to
play.
He was the Northern Ireland Young Musician of the Year in 2002 and he played several pieces which were not strictly Celtic but had a Celtic flavour to them. Marvellous entertainment! |
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Mark Wilson who plays with world champion pipe band, Field Marshall
Montgomery, gave us a short exhibition of his talents. A really
skillful performance which had the audience enthralled.
We were very lucky to have so much talent on display in Ballynahinch on the same night and we hope to be able to run some similar musical events in the not too distant future. |
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