This year's Ceilidh [Saturday, 8pm] is going to feature three fantastic local bands! Downbeat, The Scott Benson Band and Celtica are the three great bands we are going to feature. The Ceilidh will have all the great Celtic entertainment it always has, and we'll close out this year's event with a rock n' reel set from Regina's favourite Celtic rockers!

THIS YEAR"S FESTIVAL WEEKEND IS FEBRUARY 4th.

VISIT THE FESTIVAL WEB SITE!

For 20 years, the best party of the winter has been The Mid-Winter Ceilidh, and for many years we've wrapped sessions, recitals, workshops, readings, storytelling and other events around the basic theme of celebrating our Celtic roots. The original Ceilidh was a fundraiser for the Regina Folk Festival, and it was spearheaded by a couple of enthusiastic folks who wanted to get a Celtic party going. After a couple of years, the Folk Festival decided to drop the Ceilidh, and the pipe band and the group "Alba" which would later become "Iron Brew" picked it up. At one point, we had the Legion downtown heaving for two nights, and all day Saturday, with performewrs from across Canada: Kendra and Troy MacGillivray, Eileen Laverty, Iron Brew, Seanachie, Scatter the Mud, Paddy Tutty, The Lighthouse Penguins, World Champion Irish dancer Stephen McAteer, World Champion Highland dancer Colleen Rintamaki, Jennifer Roland, Ashley MacLeod and Shona LaMottée.

The goal of the weekend is to raise funds for the band program, and to put on a great weekend of entertainment and education for the Regina community. As well as the headliners, we always try to involve as many community organizations as we can, and over the years we've been very proud to feature performances from: The Conservatory Pipe Band, The Wa Wa Shrine Pipes & Drums, The Regina Highland Dance Association, The Regina Irish Club musicians and dancers, the Prairie Gael School of Irish Dance, the Heritage Fiddlers, the Regina Mandolin Orchestra, storyteller Vincent Murphy, the Blakey School of Irish Dance, and many more, including local bands, singers, songwriters, dancers and random people just showing up to play!

The past few years we've been very fortunate to have the support of Alexander Keith's Brewery, The Famous Grouse Scotch Whisky, and O'Hanlon's Irish Pub. Our friends at Bach & Beyond, Cobb-Swanson Music and [now, sadly gone] Book & Brier Patch always helped us with tickets.