Celtic Yuletide

Seventh Town part of Festival Players winter concerts

Afour-piece acoustic Celtic/folk group, Seventh Town have performed at many venues at many events throughout Prince Edward County over the years, and while Covid curtailed performances somewhat, they will be performing live this weekend. Along with The Bookends, Seventh Town will form part of Festival Players Celtic Yuletide winter holiday concert series at The Eddie. Seventh Town draw upon traditional as well as contemporary folk songs, primarily Irish and Scottish jigs with a Canadian flair where each song tells an often familiar story, usually of a time gone by, and the sound and the feeling is always upbeat and feel-good. Established more than a dozen years ago, Seventh Town is made up of Martin Smit (guitar and vocals), Meghan Balogh (fiddle and vocals), Trisha Elliott (vocals and whistles) and Fraser Hardman (bass and vocals). From Stratford, The Bookends are a modern Celtic band blending traditional Celtic tunes with a modern feel. Members include Pete Watson (guitar), Cait Watson (whistle) and Errol Fischer (fiddle).

Smit explains it was a call out of the blue from Festival Players’ artistic director Graham Abbey they were happy to get. “To say how excited we were to get the call, particularly since it’s just a beautiful venue, so we were really excited about that particularly since we have been kind of on hiatus, like most bands, for a year-and-a-half now.” Smit said it has been difficult for the band of four to get together to practise during Covid, especially since its members were in different places, although they were able to do some online performances together. “The call from Festival Players was really great because it meant for the last two months we have been getting together and really working to try and make sure the coming out of the band again is going to be as great as possible,” said an excited Smit.

The Festival Players have only recently called The Eddie home base, a new relationship Abbey says is a good fit and one he hopes will prosper. “It was quite timely actually because in the middle of the pandemic as we actually let go of our previous space in Wellington on the Main Street, and we always knew we wanted to expand and grow beyond that 60- seat capacity,” says Abbey. “The studio was a great part of our evolution, and while it’s nice to run intimate shows, I think as a company we wanted and needed to increase capacity,” he says. “The demand has been incredible, so we needed to go bigger and The Eddie gives us that option.” Abbey already knew of the beautiful barn because Festival Players had performed there in its early days.

Seventh Town will be performing as part of Festival Players winter concert series, Celtic Yuletide, this weekend at The Eddie.

It was on a more recent visit that Abbey spied the tent at the back of the property and asked what it was being used for. “It became an alignment of sorts to build that pavilion because we needed to be outdoors given the pandemic last year, so it really allowed us to put a full exciting season on last year outdoors.” They built a stage at the pavilion and have plans to continue to explore the outdoor space at The Eddie on a long-term basis. “Part of the tradition of this company has been performing outdoors, so it’s nice to keep that tradition going and there’s something nice about being under that big beautiful sky in the County and being among the elements.”

While the plan is to further explore outdoor concerts and performances in the warmer months at The Eddie, Abbey says they have hopes of being indoors at The Eddie too. He says Celtic Yuletide is their first foray into testing audience interest deep into winter, where they usually only run events up until fall, but not usually into December. “The response has been incredible, so it’s very encouraging for us,” Abbey says. Festival Players are excitedly planning for their biggest season yet for 2022, to begin in late spring to run through fall.

Seventh Town promise to bring a couple of new songs and a few holidays tunes to the stage this weekend. “It will be traditional Seventh Town acoustic Celtic folk music, some fiddle tunes and lots of songs with harmony and the seasonal music that we have brought in and we have tried to keep it as traditional as possible,” says Smit. “We have an East coast tune that we’ve learned, but some other more traditional folky Christmas wintry seasonal songs that will be in there as well.” It promises to have a really nice yuletide feel with tunes selected to give a warm feeling of winter. “We really put an effort into making it quite an upbeat fun show as we want to keep people’s spirits up,” he says. “It should be a chance to just smile, laugh and enjoy some great music and put the rest of the world away for an hour or so.” Having been cooped up for so long, he says the band is very excited to play to a live audience.

“Get ready for the holidays, come with friends and family, enjoy a drink and get cozy and join us for an afternoon or an evening of Celtic music,” says Abbey. “There will be beautiful cozy winter nights with Celtic music, so I am really excited about that and I think it will be a very special night.” The bar will be open or opt for a preshow authentic fondue dinner (Friday and Saturday nights only) in Ruby’s Clubhouse. Celtic Yuletide takes place on December 10, 11 and 12 and comprises four concert dates with both evening and afternoon performances. The Bookends will play this Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.; Seventh Town will perform this Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. It all takes place at The Red Barn at The Eddie Hotel and Farm located at 15786 Loyalist Parkway (between Bloomfield and Wellington). Tickets are $30 (arts workers and under 30s get a 15 per cent discount by using ARTS30 at purchase). All current COVID-19 safety protocols will be observed; patrons (age 12-plus) will be required to provide proof of vaccination for this indoor event in accordance with public health regulations. Further details and tickets for Celtic Yuletide can be found at festivalplayers.ca.