Diary of a Participant

The 35th Annual International Pan Celtic Festival has just finished in Letterkenny, Donegal. FIONA MACKENZIE offers a few insights into the event and competitions taking place during the week – and also the stresses and joys involved with travelling with young people and very expensive musical instruments!
 

A great chance for the girls to perform their music and meet some wonderful musicians, swap cultures and look forward to future collaborations

Planning a nice easy evening, with a meal then an intensive rehearsal for the next day – working with a group from all over Scotland is not easy, and trying to arrange necessary rehearsals is very difficult to achieve. Need at least two hours tonight.

Ten miles from Letterkenny, receive text from Murdo informing us that we are expected to perform at the Opening Ceremony tonight, for half an hour. Hasty sing on the bus – work out short programme of old favourites.

Check into Mount Errigal Hotel in Letterkenny, very comfortable, and straight to hall for evening. Tartan sashes gone missing but we have spare, to go with the ‘Fionnar Spring Water’ tee shirts. No sound check available, but we’ll manage. Ali not able to play pipes due to sore throat, but two other pipers from Nairn appear. I have to sing too, accompanied by Katie on clàrsach.

Very colourful ceremony, banners from all six participating Celtic nations – Alba, Isle of Man, Ireland, Cornwall, Wales and Brittany. Retire afterwards for hasty meal in bar then bed.

DAY 3 and an early rise for dip in hotel pool. Girls still snoring. Do lengthy interview for BBC World documentary programme – thought it was going to be radio so no make up. Ouch! Street performance in afternoon at the Market Square, lovely dancing from Welsh and Cornish groups. Decide Alba cannot be out done, so we stage an impromptu Strip the Willow – TV cameras appear like magic.

Handy furniture shop obliges with small wooden stools for clàrsach players. Meet up with some Gaels from Skye. Lots of onlookers, no PA system provided, though, so we can’t use keyboards - improvisation, improvisation. Smile. Davina and Amanda sing a lovely duet which is then featured in the National tea time news.

Back to hotel to prepare for the Group International Traditional Singing competition. No time allowed for sound check so we try to sneak ten minutes before start – had to leave after one minute as a competition was supposed to be starting. Oh well, we’ll see.

The girls are the only country to introduce their pieces, in Gaelic of course, as well as English. They sing a waulking song ‘Bheir mi sgriob’ – balance is all wrong on keyboards and I ask sound engineer to equalise them. He shrugs his shoulders. Smile.
 

Bemused locals get involved. Sound of Gaelic song, Welsh choirs and all spill out of the numerous hostelries throughout the town. Get our first real meal of the week tonight.

DAY 6 is wet and windy. Prepare for Scots Night tonight at the Clanree Hotel. Solo harp and fiddle competitions today. Fionnar were triumphant again. Katie Mackenzie won the Self Accompanied on Clàrsach Song competition, and Mairi Keir won the 12-15 Clàrsach competition.

Catherine Tinney competed in the fiddle class and gained high praise from the judge, and was told she ‘would be a force to be reckoned with next year’. Joy Dunlop from Oban, Katie and I decide at the last minute that Scotland had to be represented in the solo dance class too, so we put together a set of step dance and puirt a beul, in the toilets five minutes before the start.

After seeing some truly wonderful Irish and Welsh dancing in particular, we are shaking in our shoes but Joy effortlessly steps to our strathspeys and reels, sung very fast as Joy is a very fast dancer. The judges are blown away, never having seen step done to song before – Joy wins! We celebrate.

Evening continues with the final Scots concert – choirs, songs, pipes and dance. Fionnar sing again – people genuinely delighted to see young people taking such pride in their songs and culture. A great success. Kilts everywhere. Good music from the Lochaber Ceilidh Band. I take the clàrsach home at 3 am, but return to herd the younger girls back to the hotel. Ceilidh continues in the hotel foyer, together with the Camogie (bit like Shinty) teams who were playing today – then breakfast.

DAY 7 is sunny. Tired but happy faces appear to catch the bus at lunchtime. Will it arrive? Details scanty. It does. Clàrsach loaded into car with Murdo, keyboards etc into bus. Drive to Belfast – is it only four days since we got here?

All checked in fine. Flight on time, beautiful crossing over Arran. Parents arrive to collect tired but chatty young people – now they have to think about school again. Big farewells till next rehearsal. Promises to swap incriminating photos on e-mail.

Taxi back to Glasgow, big detour due to roadworks. Collapse to await lift to Inverness. Chance to have debriefing on weeks events, up the A9. Arrive Dingwall 2 am. Dogs wonder who I am.

Another successful trip, a great chance for the girls to perform their music and meet some wonderful musicians, swap cultures and look forward to future collaborations. Letterkenny will be a quieter place now, but the Pan Celtic will be returning there next year, so no doubt plans are already underway for another Celtic invasion.

Fiona Mackenzie is the Mairi Mhor Gaelic Song Fellow for Highland Council

© Fiona Mackenzie, 2006

Link

• Pan Celtic Festival