The 22nd annual Celtic Colours International Festival kicks off Friday night.
The opening show takes place at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre.
Dawn Beaton, the event’s artistic director, says Celtic Colours is a celebration of Cape Breton, with concerts spread across the island.
She says she encourages you to get out and explore your communities.
Beaton tells The Hawk the opening concert will be special.
“(It’s) certainly more fiddle-focused, which is not a bad thing,” she says. “What we’ve tended to do as a bit of a tradition is to feature the Artist-in-Residence, so it’ll be a kick off with them.”
Beaton says there will be lots of Gaelic content from both Cape Breton and Scotland.
She says there will be a lot of people from all over attending the festival.
Beaton says concerts are filling up fast, but there should be some tickets left.
“(We have) things for everyone- of course, it’s all about our concerts, and we have 49 of those,” she says. “There’s certainly many that are sold out, but have no fear- if it lines up with your schedule, there are tickets still available for the closing show.”
Beaton says the festival has doubled in size since it started.
She says it provides great economic spin-off, especially with many people with people coming to the area; the direct impact is roughly $10 million.