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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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St Patrick’s Concert with Beltaine on March 17
Ceili of the Valley presents a (virtual) St Patrick’s Concert featuring Portland Celtic Fusion band Beltaine! LIVE via Zoom on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, at 8 p.m. (Pacific Time). Click here to Sign up for the Zoom link. Concert is free, but donations graciously accepted. CVS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. About the Band: Beltaine is a Celtic Fusion band from Portland, Oregon that features hammered dulcimer, guitar, accordion, flute and pennywhistle. Performing both instrumental and vocal tunes, Beltaine offers a unique blend of instrumentation and musical styles. The original and traditional music performed by Beltaine is inspired by Celtic, folk, rock and classical sources. The members of Beltaine approach…
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Young Dubliners
Young Dubliners have been one of the world's leading Celtic Rock bands for more than thirty years...
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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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Na Rósaí
Today’s featured performer is Na Rósaí https://youtu.be/zcp4xw-wvGE The 2020 Samhain Celtic New Year Festival is excited to welcome Na Rósaí! Website | Facebook | Instagram In 2010, Erik Killops returned to his hometown of Portland, Oregon after receiving his bachelor’s degree in Irish Music & Dance at the University of Limerick in Ireland. Shortly after he met recent New Jersey transplant, and bouzouki player, Richie Rosencrans and California native, and uilleann piper, Preston Howard at sessions around Portland. All three were eager to start a project and discovered common interests in regard to traditional music. After a few house gatherings, a weekly performance began at a local watering hole the East Burn. In…
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Dréos
Today’s featured performer is Dréos https://youtu.be/3t0_QujaJ08 The 2020 Samhain Celtic New Year Festival is excited to welcome Dréos! Website | Email Dréos is a Celtic ensemble of performing composers who create new music and reimagine old music using a traditional vocabulary. Combining the blazing piping of Eliot Grasso, virtuosic fiddling of Brandon Vance, and powerhouse accompaniment of Glen Waddell, Dréos offers listeners exciting, handcrafted music in a living tradition, and brings audiences and students into a centuries-old cultural-artistic dialogue. Dréos has been engaging listeners in North America and in Europe since its inception. The word “Dréos” comes from Scottish Gaelic and translates into the English word “blaze” with the idea that it…
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Biddy on the Bench
Today’s featured performer isBiddy on the Bench! https://youtu.be/mi_y2cZ2qiw The 2020 Samhain Celtic New Year Festival is excited to welcome Biddy on the Bench! Website | Bandcamp The versatile combination of traditional acoustic instruments and vocal harmony lends itself equally to high-energy Irish rebel songs and shanties, lively session tunes, and mournful Gaelic ballads. Grounded primarily in the folk style of Irish music pioneered by bands such as “The Dubliners”, “Planxty”, and “The Bothy Band”, Portland’s own “Biddy on the Bench” breathes life and authenticity into old standbys of the genre and lesser-known tunes alike. The band approaches each song, each melody, with a passion for the music and sharing it with others.…
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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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Dan and Fran
The 2020 Samhain Celtic New Year Festival is excited to welcome Dan Compton and Fran Slefer. They’re especially fond of the music of southwest Ireland — that region known as Sliabh Luachra — with its repertoire of slides, polkas, and danceable reels and jigs. But they’ll play a tune from anywhere if they like it, so you can expect to hear them borrow from the traditions of the Québec, Brittany, Britain Scandinavia, and other cold, damp places.
