2019 Finale Concert
Each year, the Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association, presents a two-day festival of Cape Breton Fiddling, now held at the Gaelic College in St Anns. This festival is the present day successor of the first Festival of Cape Breton Fiddling, held in 1973 in Glendale. Quoting from the Association’s history web page:
In February, 1972, a CBC documentary entitled The Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler was produced by Ron MacInnis. The premise of this film was [that] the traditional Cape Breton violin music was in a state of decline, and that it would soon disappear entirely! Reaction to this documentary was swift and disbelieving. The most notable achievement of the film was that it shook Cape Bretoners out of their complacency, and it made them aware [that], quite possibly, the Cape Breton Fiddle was facing extinction.
Father John Angus Rankin was one of the key people who vowed that this would never happen! A group composed of Frank MacInnis, Father Eugene Morris, Burton MacIntyre, Archie Neil Chisholm, Father John Angus Rankin, Rod Chisholm, Judge Hugh J. MacPherson, Anne Marie MacDonald, Jeannette Beaton, Joey Beaton, and Ray MacDonald met as a result of a letter sent out by Frank MacInnis. This group discussed the possibility of forming some kind of a fiddlers’ festival. This dedicated group of people decided to proceed with the concept; thus, the very seed of the Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association began. Because of the efforts of this determined group, the first Festival of Cape Breton Fiddling was held in Glendale in July 1973. Over one hundred and thirty proud Cape Breton fiddlers arrived in Glendale that weekend and gave one of the greatest concerts ever witnessed in Cape Breton. Several thousand people made up the audience.
Preparation for the successful 1973 festival gave birth to the Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association, and its work continues today. The Association’s main mandate has been to preserve and promote traditional Cape Breton fiddle music. Since its inception, it has provided workshops and opportunities for its members to learn new tunes and techniques, it has published tunes written by its members, and it has provided venues for musicians to perform for thousands of people. It has nurtured and supported its members to excel; as a result, many of our wonderful members are now performing worldwide. Our membership has increased to include both local, national, and international members. We have been included in several publications, and we have some wonderful recordings to our credit. Cape Breton fiddle music is alive and flourishing both on the Island and throughout the world; and the Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association is proud to have played a significant role in this resurgence.
Now held on the week-end containing the third Saturday in August at the Colaisde na Gàidhlig / The Gaelic College in St Anns, in 2019, the 46th edition of the Festival of Cape Breton Fiddling took place August 17-18.
The schedule for the Festival of Cape Breton Fiddling was as follows:
- On Saturday afternoon, workshops in fiddle, piano, and step-dance were conducted by some of the Association’s finest performers and instructors: John Pellerin (Step Dancing), Lawrence Cameron (Piano), Dara Smith-MacDonald (Fiddle Beginner), Kinnon Beaton (Fiddle Intermediate), and Shelly Campbell (Fiddle Advanced).
- Supper was available from 17h-18h.
- A tune-sharing session ran from 18h-19h.
- A concert and square dance ran from 19h-21h.
- On Sunday from 14h-19h, the Finale Concert, the highlight of the festival, took place inside the Great Hall of the Clans. It featured a rich line-up of local, national, and international fiddlers, piano players, bagpipers, singers, step-dancers, and highland dancers.
Like so many on Cape Breton, this Festival could not have been mounted without the commitment and perseverance of the many volunteers, whose support is crucial to this Festival’s continued success. To the Association’s directors, stage managers, emcees, canteen crew, chaperones, those staffing the ticket tables, maintaining the membership lists, selling merchandise to raise funds for the Association, ferrying youth players to and from practice sessions and concerts, preparing instructional materials, and carrying out the many other functions all year long that are necessary to make this Festival and the Association the success it is year after year—to all of them we owe a huge vote of thanks and appreciation for their time, work, and dedication. Cape Breton’s fiddle music would not be the same without them!
Sunday morning the forecast, which proved accurate, called for rain in the afternoon, so the decision was taken to hold the concert inside the Great Hall of the Clans, rather than in the outdoor amphitheatre overlooking St Anns Harbour.
The canteen, in addition to the usual cold drinks, tea, and coffee, featured hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, and home-cut fries; ice cream and fresh stawberry shortcake were available for dessert. CD’s, DVD’s, books, tee-shirts, and similar materials were also on sale during the concert. Staffed by volunteers, the proceeds from all of these activities help support the work of the Association.
The thrilling sound of massed fiddles is reason enough to hold this Festival. But it is also important as it provides opportunities to many of the members to demonstrate their skills as fiddlers and pianists and dancers. Moreover, the Festival provides a gauge of the health of the music, featuring, as it does, the upcoming youth players and many of Cape Breton’s finest players. This Finale Concert again revealed that the music is in very fine shape, though the number of very young players in attendance was smaller than one would like: the youth of a few years ago have now taken their rightful rôle as sought-after, experienced performers of the music.
The 2019 Finale Concert concluded the 46th Anniversary celebrations at the Festival. Emceed jointly by Wendy Bergfeldt, hostess of CBC Radio’s Mainstreet Cape Breton, and by Bob MacEachern, it began shortly after 14h on the stage in the Great Hall of the Clans. In spite of it being held inside, the grand music quickly captured one’s rapt attention and a great afternoon celebration of traditional fiddle music was enjoyed by all.
I am not a professional photographer, so take the photos for what they are: my best attempt to capture what was going on at a live event. I had an excellent seat in the front row below the stage; I also occasionally walked about the Great Hall, attempting not to distract from what was happening on stage, in order to get views from other angles. The group numbers posed a number of challenges: my lens was not wide enough to capture the whole stage and those below it in a single shot when I was in my seat and necessarily included audience members when I was further back in the hall; the lighting failed to make the best use of the facilities at the Gaelic College, leaving some musicians on stage in shadows and others in over-bright light, making for terrible contrast, and my efforts to correct for that, both at the time of the concert and in editing afterwards, were clearly often inadequate, with grainy photos as the result. The stage was crowded during the group numbers, and I found no way to get good shots of those in the back rows hidden by those standing in front from any angle. Inevitably, microphones and sound equipment intruded into all of the photos, casting shadows on faces. With those caveats, I hope you will nevertheless enjoy the photos presented here.
