CelticFest, Another Big Craic!
By WARREN PURCHASE
Festival Founder, Director and Artistic Director
VANCOUVER - CelticFest 2005 was a great success on many levels. Granville Street came alive with CelticFest banners on the street light posts, posters and displays in merchants’ windows, outdoor and indoor entertainment, dances, workshops and the friendliest aura around all the Celts and non-Celts who came to enjoy the festival. A big thanks to whoever arranged the wonderful sunshine for the festival, will we be blessed again next year?
Over 60,000 people came down to Granville Street over the seven days with gatherings ranging from 30 people at the Robbie Burns discussion, 250 people at the Big Craic, 500 people per event at the TD Plaza outdoor stage, 1,300 people at the Commodore and 45,000 people at the parade.
Again, the parade was an overwhelming success and attracted all age groups. Everyone was in a great mood with kids, teens, adults and the elderly all mingling together having a great time. Steve McVittie did another fantastic job as parade marshal.
Can you believe we closed Granville Street from Smithe to Nelson both Saturday and Sunday? This would not have been possible without the support of the city. The Vancouver City Council and all the city departments involved are to be highly commended for getting behind their own words and allowing Vancouver to become the Funcouver we all knew it was. A special thanks to Mayor Campbell and everyone on the council for their support.
The entertainment at the various venues was well received with sold out shows and well attended free shows. By all accounts the local talents of the West coast Celtic artists, writers, performers, dancers and musicians were well received. The new events this year included the Celtic village market, celebration of dance, the tap and taste, and both film and theatrical productions.
The festival will begin planning CelticFest 2006 in the near future and needs sponsors in order to expand and improve the festival. Thanks to all our present in-kind sponsors, sponsors and individual efforts, without you we would not be able to present the festival. We hope to see you again in 2006 with a bigger better festival. We encourage any companies or individuals interested in sponsoring to contact us as soon as they can.
Many people were involved in making CelticFest 2005 a great success but I would like to thank some individuals in particular that made the festival come alive. Thanks to Rita Albano of One World Productions, Karen Peterson-Ivanick of the DVBIA, Steve McVittie our parade marshal (Celtic Treasures on Dunbar), Mark Moutenay of elevenseven media group, our publicist Julia Markus and our volunteer coordinator Cam Snyder.
In closing, I would also like to acknowledge and thank all the wonderful volunteers who saw a vision with me and dedicated their own free time to make the festival happen. Please come back again next year and we’ll create an even better festival than even our expectations can envision. Thanks to all!
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