Highland Village Museum Celebrates Celtic Colours
Cape Breton Island is home to the 13th annual Celtic Colours International Festival, a unique celebration of music and culture, Oct. 9 to 17. The Highland Village Museum will offer a variety of activities as part of the internationally acclaimed event.
Highland Village Museum in Iona, Victoria Co., will begin the festival with its annual Gaelic film series.
Hallaig, which explores the poetry of Sorley MacLean, originally composed in Gaelic, will kick-off the series on Friday, Oct. 9.
On Tuesday, Oct. 13, the series will feature Fagail Bharraidh, which profiles a tour group of Scottish Gaels, originally hailing from the Isle of Barra, who toured Cape Breton Island in October 2006 in search of relatives and Nova Scotia's Gaelic language traditions.
The Gaelic Cape Breton Show will be shown Wednesday, Oct. 14. The glance back to the show at the Little Theatre UCCB in 1989 showcases some of Cape Breton's most recognizable performers like Dave MacIsaac, Willie Kennedy, Willie Fraser, Natalie MacMaster, the late John Morris Rankin, and traditional Gaelic singers.
All shows start at 2 p.m. and admission is free.
A textile workshop, Pioneer Textile Tour, will be offered on Monday, Oct. 13. Textile specialist Vicki Quimby will discuss cloth production in the historical lives of rural Nova Scotian gaels as participants tour various time periods on the site. The tour will conclude with a traditional Scottish tea and oatcakes. Admission for the tour is $10 per person.
John Gibson is this year's guest lecturer for the annual Joe Neil MacNeil Memorial Lecture. Gibson's talk, The Strange Case of a Scottish Governor of Medina, will examine the life of Scotsman Thomas Keith, who rose to military eminence in the Egyptian army between 1807 and 1815. The lecture begins at 1 p.m. and admission is free.
The final candlelight tour of the season will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 14, from 6-8 p.m. It will be an intimate evening featuring a storytelling tour of the living history site under a Cape Breton sunset. Admission is $12 for adults, $28 for a family, and $5 for students. Prepaid reservations are required.
A Gaelic song workshop is set for Thursday, Oct. 15 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The special workshop on Gaelic song will feature Scottish singers. Admission is free.
The final Celtic Colours event at Highland Village will be a mask making workshop on Friday, Oct. 16, from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. In preparation for Oidhche Shamhna, Marlene Ivey, an art and design professional who recently returned from Scotland, will teach the making of masks inspired by the Gaelic traditions of All Hallows Eve. Admission is $30 per person.
For more information on events, contact Highland Village at 902-725-2272, e-mail highlandvillage@gov.ns.ca or visit http://museum.gov.ns.ca/hv/ .