Award-winning Manx musicians will kick start the 2018 Yn Chruinnaght Celtic Gathering Festival, with a night of music performed by four BBC Radio2 Folk award winners.

Beginning on Wednesday, July 11, the long-running festival will be opened by the multi-Celtic folk group Imar, featuring Manx musicians Adam Rhodes and Tom Callister, who recently won the ’Horizons’ award at the national folk awards, held last month.

Imar also feature the musician of the year, concertina player Mohsen Amini.

Opening for Imar will be the island’s own Mera Royle, who was named young musician of the year.

Festival organiser Chloe Woolley believes that this concert will show how far Manx music has come in recent years.

’That night will firmly say that the Isle of Man is at the top of our league,’ said Chloe

’We are definitely being noticed, and there is a lot of excitement internationally around about our music, especially with Tom and Adam doing so well with Imar, and Mera also winning her award.’

Also featuring throughout the week long festival are Irish folk legends Altan, who are in the midst of celebrating 30 years performing and recording together.

They will be joined by two young folk acts, the Scots and Irish hybrid group Las, featuring the step dancing talents of Joy Dunlop, and the Welsh folk pop group Nogood Boyos.

They will be supported by the local groups Clash Vooar, The Lawrences and a collective featuring Ruth Keggin, Jamie Smith, David Kilgallon and Malcolm Stitt.

All the main concerts take place at the Peel Centenary Centre, and there are also to be a series of family ceilis taking place at the Peel Masonic Hall on the Friday and Saturday nights as part of the festival.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the festival, which was started in 1978 by the Manx cultural stalwart, Mona Douglas.

The celebration of Manx culture has overcome many challenges over its lifetime, and it very nearly folded altogether around 2001.

Originally held solely in Ramsey, the festival now takes place primarily in the more central location of Peel, with a series of lunchtime concerts also taking place in Noa Bakehouse through out the week.

And, while eyebrows were raised when the festival moved home, more complaints were raised when the committee made the decision to change the name during last year’s event, with the Yn Chruinnaght committee deciding to call the week-long series of events ’Celtfest’.

This year, they have decided on a slightly different name, with the title ’Yn Chruinnaght’s Celtic Gathering’, which festival organiser Chloe Woolley hopes will appeal to all sides.

’We think that Celtfest worked, and it helped us reach new audiences, which was the whole idea,’ said Chloe.

’We’re not throwing the Yn Chruinnaght name away. The organisation is still called Yn Chruinnaght, and the Celtic Gathering is the name of the festival.

’The ’Celtic Gathering’ is more an appropriate name, as it is the translation of ’Yn Chruinnaght’, although I do think that we could call it whatever you want, the festival will still be the same.

’You have to try these things. Nothing is set in stone. You just have to play around with these ideas and try to keep these things relevant and move with the times.

’There were a lot of people who totally understood what we were doing, and certainly from a tourism point of view it was a lot more accessible to people visiting the island, and we reached a lot of people who may not have been on the radar, and who may have been put off by the name.’

The weekend will see a grand parade of flags, dancers and musicians along Peel quayside, and crafts, storytelling and other workshops at the House of Mannanan

’We are very excited about the whole festival,’ said Chloe.

’ The fact that a little festival like this has survived for forty years is pretty amazing in itself. Many festivals had come and gone in that time, and Yn Chruinnaght has had to evolve to survive.

’We have tried to make it relevant to what is going on nowadays, but still have references to the past. And it still has that idea of the inter-Celtic friendship, which is important and that I think is still there.’

Yn Chruinnaght’s Celtic Gathering takes place between Wednesday 11 and Sunday 16 July. Tickets for the concerts will be available from the Peel Centenary Centre, and full details of the festival programme will be available at celticgathering.im soon.

by Mike Wade

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