- April 26, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
More than 20 bands will play at the 5th-annual Ormond Beach Celtic Festival.
The members of the Irish traditional music group Gailfean were blown together by Hurricane Sandy.
In 2012, Don Penzien, Brian Conway, John Whelan and Máirtín de Cógáin were all teaching Irish music and culture at a retreat in Texas when the storm hit. Travel plans were canceled, artists demonstrations were rearranged, the four of them ended up on stage together.
“We’ve all known each other for years,” Penzien, who mostly plays guitar in the band, said. “After that night, we enjoyed performing together, and people started asking to book us.”
After the band was formally created, they decided to name it after the weather that brought them together. Gailfean means big storm in gaelic.
“I didn’t start performing until I got out of grad school for clinical psychology,” Penzien said. “I tell people I’m a professor so I can afford to be a musician. I fell in love with music first and the culture second.”
Penzien said there’s a lot of talent in the other members of the band, including Whelan, who is an all-Ireland button-box champion and was named "Traditionalist of the Year" by Irish Echo magazine. Conway is an all-Ireland, Sligo style fiddler, and cork-born Cógáin is the singing, dancing, bodhrán player who also happens to be an All-Ireland champion storyteller.
The group will be celebrating their love for celtic culture at the 5th-annual Ormond Beach Celtic Festival this April. They, along with 20 other bands, will perform throughout the two-day festival.
“When people think of irish music they think of Irish vaudevillian show tunes like “Irish Eyes Smiling” or “Danny Boy” or they’ll think of long songs that encourage you to drink too much,” Penzien chuckled. “Those songs are not traditionally played in Ireland. They’re popular because of the Amercian culture. The music we play is the folk music that’s been around for hundreds of years. What we do is not the first thing you think of.”
Musical Line-up
Each day at the festival features five music stages filled with music, dance and storytelling by regional and international performers. This year’s lineup includes:
Performers in the festival’s jam tent welcome anyone who wishes to bring an instrument and become a part of the music. Rosie O’Grady’s Highlanders, an Orlando based bagpipe and drum band, will lead daily parades on the festival grounds as well as performing on stage.
If You Go
For more information www.OrmondBeachCelticFestival.com or contact Ormond Beach MainStreet at 492-2938.
