PARKERSBURG - Traditional Irish and Scottish dancing and music, Celtic tales, Celtic fiddlers, bagpipes, artisans and genealogy will be featured at the 2011 Scottish and Celtic Heritage Festival 10-6 p.m. April 2 at the Parkersburg City Park Pavilion.
The festival will kick off at 10 a.m. with the Sons of the American Revolution Capt. James Neal Chapter from Parkersburg as color guard for the opening ceremonies.
The entertainment lineup includes the award-winning West Virginia Highland Dancer Charlotte Powell who will be on stage performing traditional Scottish dances at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.
The Akron Ceili Band will perform at noon and 2 p.m. Ceili (also spelled Ceilidh in Gaelic, and pronounced KAY-lee) is a time to get together with friends, family and neighbors to celebrate. The Akron band is non-traditional in that it has bodhrans (Irish drums), guitars, whistles (known as feadogs in Ireland), mandolins and even the occasional stand-up bass.
The festival will feature Seanahie Melanie Pratt, a professional Celtic storyteller. A founding member of the Ohio Order for the Preservation of Storytelling, Pratt will share tales from the Celtic lands. Seanachie is an old Celtic word meaning storyteller (old Irish) or genealogist (old Scots).
The West Virginia 4-H Dance Ambassadors also will perform traditional Scottish and Irish dances. The group of 4-H members, dedicated to keeping the heritage of West Virginia alive through dance, performs at the Vandalia Gathering, the West Virginia State Fair anually and other festivals and conferences throughout the year.
Celtic fiddler Darrell Murray, a Lancaster, Ohio, native and member of the Ohio Valley Symphony, will perform at 4 p.m. In 2006, he won fifth place in the national Scottish fiddling competition. He plays bagpipes, performing in the OVS production of "Brigadoon."
Mark Barsamian, who spends his daytime hours teaching math at Ohio University and loves to play the Celtic fiddle when school is out, is on the entertainment schedule. The math professor will be joined by Ed Newman, who plays hammer dulcimer with the Boys of the Hock Celtic band from Athens. They will be on stage at 11:15 a.m.
This year's event will include artisans Joan Coffey of Marietta and Terry Higgins of Belleville demonstrating their spinning skills, and potter Katie Ferguson of Parkersburg. There will be children's games including a Design Your Own Tartan Coloring Contest, and take-home crafts as well as door and raffle prizes.
Genealogists tracing their ancestry will have information, tips and help available as well as local history, clan maps and tartan finders. Festival committee members Jim and Janet Lockhart, members of local DAR and SAR, have been doing family genealogy for more than 50 years.
"When we started we did not have any intentions of ever writing a book, but we are now publishing 89 different family genealogies. We have over 350,000 names in our database. It is an ongoing process that never ends," said Jim Lockhart. "Our books are in various libraries including the DAR library in Washington, D.C., West Virginia Cultural Center Research Library in Charleston, W.Va., and several county libraries across the state of West Virginia and in Marietta, Ohio.
"The Lockhart name is Scottish and is traced back to Symon D LocArd, who accompanied the Good Sir James Douglas in carrying the heart of Robert the Bruce to the Holy Land. After a battle with the Moors in Spain, in which Douglas was killed, LocArd returned the heart to Scotland. He captured a Morrish prince, and as part of the ransom for his return, was given a talisman (a healing stone) which became known as the Lee Penny and is still with the family in Scotland," Lockhart said.
The festival will feature information on local families and settlements, including a presentation by Ray Swick, historian with Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park, scheduled for 3 p.m. Swick will talk about local Irish aristocrats, the Blennerhassetts.
