2012 Summerside Highland Gathering
The 2012 Summerside Highland Gathering will be held June 22, 23 & 24, 2012.
Entry Forms
Solo Piping, Drumming and Pipe Bands
Highland Dancing - Coming Soon
Step Dancing - Coming Soon
Schedule
| Sunday, June 17 | ||
| Time | Event/Activity | Location |
| 10:30:am | Kirkin' Of the Tartans Church Service | Presbyterian Church - Victoria Road |
| Friday, June 22 | ||
| Time | Event/Activity | Location |
| 8:00am | Step Dance Registration | Main Hall |
| 9:00am-4:00pm | Step Dance Competition | Mary Ellen Burns Amphitheatre |
| 6:00pm | Beer Tent Opens | Event Field |
| 7:30pm-9:30pm | Barra MacNeils - Live in Concert | Mary Ellen Burns Amphitheatre |
| 9:30pm - 12:00 | Entertainment - Richard Wood Trio | Beer Tent |
| Saturday, June 23 | ||
| Time | Event/Activity | Location |
| 8:00am | Field Opens | |
| 8:30am | Pipe/Drum Solo Check in Opens | Order of Play Board |
| 8:30am | Highland Dance Registration | Mary Ellen Burns Amphitheatre |
| 9:00am - 12:00 | Piping Solo Competition | Piping Platforms |
| 9:00am - 12:00 | Drumming Solo Competition | Drumming Platforms |
| 9:00am - complete | Highland Dance Championship Competition / Awards | Mary Ellen Burns Amphitheatre |
| 10:00am - 4:00pm | Family Entertainment | Kids Area |
| 10:00am - 4:00pm | Entertainment & Demonstrations | Half Shell - HG Field |
| 11:00am | Beer Tent Opens | |
| 12:30 - 1:00pm | Opening Ceremonies with Mass Band | Competition Field |
| 1:30pm - 4:30pm | Pipe Band Competition | Competition Field |
| 4:00pm-complete | Highland Dance - Choreography | Mary Ellen Burns Amphitheatre |
| 5:00pm - 6:00pm | Mass Band & Awards | Competition Field |
| 6:00pm - 8:00pm | Entertainment - Ward MacDonald and Friends | Beer Tent |
| 8:00pm - 10:00pm | Entertainment -Ryan and Boyd MacNeil | Beer Tent |
| 10:00pm - 1:00am | Entertainment - Vishten | Beer Tent |
| Sunday, June 24 | ||
| Time | Event/Activity | Location |
| 8:00am | Field Opens | |
| 8:30am | Pipe/Drum Solo Check in Opens | Order of Play Board |
| 8:30am | Highland Dance Registration | Highland Dance Stage |
| 9:00am - 12:00 | Piping Solo Competition | Piping Platforms |
| 9:00am - 12:00 | Drumming Solo Competition | Drumming Platforms |
| 9:00am - 4:00pm | Highland Dance Competition | Mary Ellen Burns Amphitheatre |
| 10:00am - 4:00pm | Family Entertainment | Kids Area |
| 10:00am - 4:00pm | Entertainment & Demonstrations | Half Shell - HG Field |
| 11:00am | Beer Tent Opens | |
| 12:30 pm - 3:30 pm | Pipe Band Competition | Competition Field |
| 2:00pm - 2:30pm | Tug of War - 12 and under | Kids Area - HG Field |
| 4:00pm - 4:30pm | Mass Band & Awards/Closing Ceremony | Competition Field |
| 4:00pm - 5:00pm | Highland Dance Awards | Mary Ellen Burns Amphitheatre |
| 6:00pm | Volunteer Reception | VIP Tent |
Highland Gathering Pricing
| Weekend Pass | Concert Friday night not included | |
| Adult | $20.00 | |
| Senior/Youth | $16.00 | Youth 7 - 17 years of age |
| Child | N/C | Child 0 - 6 |
| Daily | All events and Beer Tent in evening | |
| Adult | $12.00 | |
| Senior/Youth | $10.00 | |
| Child | N/C | |
| Barra MacNeils Live in Concert – Friday Night - Friday Night Concert | ||
| Adult | $38.00 | Includes Beer Tent Admission After Concert |
| Senior/Student | $35.00 | seniors includes beer tent admission after concert/td> |
| Ceilidh in the Tent - Friday and Saturday evening | ||
| Adult/Senior | $5.00 | if have not attending concert |
About the Gathering
Visit the clan tents, stroll around the different vendors, and browse through the Celtic gifts. Then catch your breath and refuel with some delicious food and a nice cold drink.
The entire weekend is a great big Ceilidh. Relax in the entertainment tent where you can sit in the shade and enjoy the musical talents of East coast favorites.
Whether you spend the afternoon in the entertainment tent, enjoy the outdoor main stage or take part in an evening Ceilidh, you will feel a kinship toward the music, the song, and most importantly, the people.
The Games are a celebration of the Highland arts of piping, dancing, drumming, and all things Scottish. The piping part of the day begins early with the solo competitions in the morning. It may be confusing at first as there will be various people hanging about in the bushes playing their pipes. They are not purposely trying to annoy you, they’re tuning up for the competition.
Next to the bagpipe playing area there is a small table behind which sits a grumpy, possibly disheveled individual who alternately listens intently, scribbles illegibly on a paper, or simply holds his head in his hands, weeping. Make no attempt at discourse with this person he is the judge. They are best left alone.
While taking in the other solo events dancing, and drumming it is good to keep these guidelines in mind: those tiny adorable, innocuous looking dancers are some of the fiercest competitors around. You need only observe their expressions during the Irish Jig to know they mean business.
In addition to the competitions are concerts, a children's area, entertainment, and a beer tent, where the judges seem a little less on edge.
Entertainment
- Kyle: vocals, guitar, violin, mandolin
- Lucy: vocals, bodhran, Celtic harp, fiddle, step dancing
- Sheumas: keyboards, piano, bodhran, fiddle, bouzouki, vocals
- Stewart: vocals, accordion, tin whistle, flute, bouzouki, guitar, step dancing
- Boyd: mandolin, fiddle, guitar, banjo, percussion, step dancing
- Ryan: keyboards, percussion, uillian pipes, tin whistle, bodhran, step dancing
- Jamie Gatti: bass
Richard Wood with Gordon Belsher & Brad Fremlin The trio of Richard Wood, with Gordon Belsher and Brad Fremlin has toured across Canada and around the world.
"...perfect precision, playfulness and power!" Todd MacLean - Charlottetown Guardian
Prince Edward Island fiddling dynamo Richard Wood
has been wowing audiences all across Canada, as well as
in the U.S., Europe, and Japan for more than a decade.
Highlights include TV guest appearances with Shania
Twain on "David Letterman" and "Good Morning
America", Carnegie Hall with Irish legends "The
Chieftains", CBC TV's Canada Day on Parliament Hill,
"Rita MacNeil and Friends", and with Jean Butler of
Riverdance on "Celtic Electric". He's performed for the
Queen of England and the Emperor of Japan, he's
entertained Canadian troops in Bosnia and Afghanistan,
and he was a featured performer in the touring fiddle
spectacle "Bowfire". Richard's won three East Coast
Music Awards, and MacLean's Magazine named him one
of the Top 100 Canadians to watch in the 21'st century.
www.RWood.ca
Gordon Belsher was a "Roots Traditional Solo Artist" nominee at
Canada's 2008 East Coast Music Awards for his CD, "Call up all the
Neighbours". His previous solo CD, "Reel in the Flickering Light" was
also nominated in that same category at the 2003 ECMA's.
As accompanist and featured vocalist with Richard Wood and Island
fiddling jewel Cynthia MacLeod, Gordon has toured extensively across
Canada, the U.S., the U.K. & Europe, and performed as part of the
cultural delegation for Team Canada in Tokyo, Japan in 1999. At the
2006 Charlottetown Festival, he was featured in "Celtic Blaze" with
fiddling and step-dancing jaw-dropper Stephanie Cadman, and he
composed the opening anthem for the 2004 Canada Special Olympics
winter games.
www.GuernseyCove.ca
Brad Fremlin moved to Prince Edward Island to work as the principal
drumming, piano and theory instructor at Summerside's College of Piping and
Celtic Performing Arts. An accomplished percussionist and classically trained
pianist, he also plays the accordion and is even bowing the musical hand saw!
Brad released his first solo CD of original compositions in 2001. It includes a
version of his showstopping "drum salute" on the marching snare which was
recorded live in Denmark while touring the world with Richard Wood.
He performed in the Charlottetown Festival's "Celtic Blaze", and "A Closer Walk
With Patsy Cline", as well as in the popular PEI show "Hedgerow". Brad was also
part of a show for Canadian and International troops in Afghanistan in 2006.
www.MySpace.com/bradfremlin
Ward MacDonald grew up in the Scottish fiddling and dancing traditions of Prince Edward Island. He has been featured at concerts, festivals, square dances, and fiddle camps across Canada and the United States. Ward is the fiddler in the College of Piping's "Highland Storm" this year and is one of its contributing composers.
When not performing, Ward works to promote the traditional music scene on Prince Edward Island and develop new performing and learning opportunities. Over the last decade, he created PEI's Festival of Small Halls, initiated workshops at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival, and founded the PEI Fiddle Camp.
Ellen MacPhee is a living proponent of a bagpiping tradition geared for dance halls and audiences that like to groove. Her repertoire draws on the dance rhythms of Prince Edward Island, Scottish, Irish, and Cape Breton traditions, and her arrangements combine Scottish smallpipes with fiddles, pianos, guitars, banjos and other unlikely characters.
In recent years, Ellen has delighted listeners around Eastern Canada and the United States including performance highlights at Celtic Colours International Festival and PEI's Festival of Small Halls. She has also taught at PEI Fiddle Camp, the Gaelic College, Hamish Moore's Piping School in Richmond, VT, and The Piper's Gathering in Killington, VT.
Boyd and Ryan MacNeil come from the musical traditions and are siblings of "The Barra MacNeils". While the family band is their full time musical endeavor, they have toured American and Japan with The Chieftains and The Stepcrew and are founding members of the Celtic dance band, Slainte Mhath. They have spread the musical traditions of Cape Breton music with energy and enthusiasm throughout the world.
For the past ten years, Vishtèn has been touring their brand of new-traditional Acadian music in more than 1000 performances carried out in eight different countries. High energy music from PEI and the Magdelen Islands: 10 instruments, 3 part harmonies, Celtic grooves and new compositions, they are ground breaking trad/folk music from their part of the world.
'The Acadian band that mixes rythms or irresistible dancing and climbing notes and voices to the sky... high voltage musicians'
- Le Guéret, France
'The burning fires of Acadia'
- Le Télégramme, Lorient, France
'It's like Buckwheat Zydeco meets the Irish. The first time I saw them, I loved them!'
- Pittsburg Irish Festival
