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2023 Samhain Festival headliner is Two Rivers Ceili Band
For over 50 years, our region has been rich with Irish music and Irish dance. Dancers have enjoyed céilí (Irish social) and set dancing to great live music, and learned step dancing and Sean-Nós (old-style) dancing from great teachers. What the region hasn’t had was a dedicated céilí band–that is, musicians committed to providing music for céilí and set dancing. The Two Rivers Céilí Band assembled in July 2022 to remedy this. In Ireland and worldwide, céilí bands represent the talents of their locality. Two Rivers Céilí Band well represents our region with fiddles, flutes, whistles, uilleann pipes, guitar, piano and song. Our members: Niamh Branigan is a fiddle player…
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SAVE THE DATE!
The 2023 Samhain Celtic New Year Festival will take place on Saturday, October 21. It will return to the heart of Salem at the Willamette Heritage Center. Watch for more information coming soon. We will be looking for sponsors, presenters, vendors and a headline performer!
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Celtic Quilt Raffle
Enter to win this colorful, custom-designed quilt with beautiful, intricate hand-quilted details. Leslie Ficker has once again created a one-of-a-kind quilt to be raffled at the Samhain Celtic New Year Festival. The quilt is 86 inches x 64.5 inches and has a beautiful Celtic knotwork border. Tickets are $5.00 each or 5 tickets for $20.00. Detail Photo:
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Biddy on the Bench headlines the 2022 festival!
Step into a world of Celtic culture at the Ceili of the Valley’s annual Samhain Celtic New Year Festival 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022, in the Spinning Room at the Willamette Heritage Center, 1313 Mill St. SE. Learn to sing a shanty. Try your feet at set dancing. Explore Celtic history and heritage. Listen to stories of the wee folk and faeries. Visit the family area for opportunities to craft. Shop vendors of a cultural nature. The festival offers a wide variety of experiences, information and opportunities for all ages, including mini highland games where kids can test their skills at the caber toss, sheaf toss,…
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Vendors, Performers & Exhibitors Wanted!
The Ceili of the Valley Society (CVS) is excited to announce its seventh annual Samhain Celtic New Year Festival to be held Saturday, October 22, 2022. The mission of the Ceili of the Valley Society is to promote Irish and Celtic culture mainly through music and dance. Ceili of the Valley Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and is a participating Oregon Cultural Trust non-profit. Applications are open for vendors, performers and exhibitors! What are we looking for? The Samhain Celtic New Year Festival is an educational family-friendly introduction of Celtic culture to the community. Vendor merchandise should be Celtic-related and family appropriate. Interested in being a vendor? Click here. The…
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Banda Taverna
The 2020 Samhain Celtic New Year Festival is excited to welcome Banda Taverna, the kilt-wearing, sea-faring, soul-baring band from Brazil.
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Coming Up Threes
Coming Up Threes is a seven-piece, high-energy Celtic-music-inspired band which formed in Portland, OR in early 2012. The band features Bill Tollner on guitar and lead vocals; multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Bauer on penny whistle, banjo, bodhran, percussion and vocals; Naoyuki Ochiai on fiddle, accordion and vocals; Chad Marks-Fife on Fiddle, Mandolin and vocals; Charlie Norris on bass; David Fender on drums and featuring Giuseppe Tambourini on the tambourine and auxiliary percussion.
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Pipedance
The 2020 Samhain Celtic New Year Festival is excited to welcome Pipedance, featuring husband and wife duo Gary Burman and Nora Sherwood. Formed out of a true love for Irish music and dance, their sound is complemented by Nora’s percussive sean-nós step dancing making this duo is not only fun to listen to, but fun to watch, too.
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Colleen Raney
The 2020 Samhain Celtic New Year Festival is excited to welcome vocalist Colleen Raney, who has been referred to as “among the best in her genre”. (Irish Music Magazine) and “one of America’s best traditional singers.” (Tradconnect)
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D’n’A
The 2020 Samhain Celtic New Year Festival is excited to welcome Celtic duo D'n'A, who play traditional music from Europe and North America. Doug Heydon plays guitar, banjo and bass, plus a touch of percussion (spoons, bones, mouth harp) and the French vielle à roue (hurdy-gurdy) and the Appalachian mountain dulcimer. Amey Herman focuses on fiddles: 4-string and 5-string, and the 9-stringed Norwegian Hardanger fiddle.
