Fall Celtic Festival

05/09/2026

Still reeling from the sheer intellectual and creative force of last night’s lecture by Colm Tóibín, one of Ireland’s most distinguished authors (top photo), to a packed auditorium at the University of St. Michael's College, University of Toronto. ✨📚 His talk, “The Literature of Homecoming”, offered a remarkable set of reflections on home, family, exile, and the art of writing, delivered with the precision and depth that define his work.

Tóibín’s novel "Brooklyn" — adapted into the Academy-Award-nominated film starring Saoirse Ronan — established him as a major international voice in contemporary fiction. His eleven novels, along with his works of non-fiction, criticism, and drama, have earned numerous international honours. He currently serves as Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University. 🎓📖

The evening’s distinguished podium speakers also included:
• His Excellency John Concannon, Ambassador of Ireland to Canada ☘🍁 (bottom left photo)
• Professor Charlie Foran, CM, prolific Canadian writer and adjunct instructor at the University of Toronto’s Department of English (bottom right photo). Foran's twelfth book, "Just Once, No More: On Fathers, Sons, and Who We Are Until We Are No Longer", was named one of The Globe and Mail's Best Books of 2023. ✍️🌟

Last night’s event formed part of the high-profile Craig Dobbin Legacy Lecture Series, held at UCD (University College Dublin), Memorial University of Newfoundland, and the University of St. Michael's College. This series bringing Irish and Canadian academics into shared conversation is an initiative of the Ireland Canada University Foundation, the UCD Dobbin Centre for Canadian Studies, and UCD’s College of Arts and Humanities. 🎓☘🤝🍁

A magnificent evening of exchanging ideas — and a reminder of the deep, ongoing cultural dialogue between Ireland and Canada that the Fall Celtic Festival is proud to be part of. 🌿✨

Embassy of Ireland - Canada
Consulate General of Ireland, Toronto
University of St. Michael's College
University College Dublin
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Columbia University
The Globe and Mail

05/07/2026

The Fall Celtic Festival is proud to introduce Kylie Paliani, the newly appointed 2026 Toronto Rose of Tralee 🌹☘️✨— selected at last weekend’s 58th Toronto Rose Selection Ball, an event the Festival was honoured to sponsor.

Kylie’s achievements make her a brilliant representative and role model: she holds a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering, works in Sports Medicine and Orthopaedics, and performs with two professional Irish dance companies — The Canadian Irish Dance Company and Trinity Irish Dance Company. ☘️🍁🩰 She received her expert dance training from our Festival partner, The Goggin Stewart School of Irish Dance. 💚☘️✨

📸 The photo with this post is courtesy of The 2025 OIDA Claddagh Ball. 📹 You can watch a recent video of Kylie discussing her upcoming performance in “Arising” in Ottawa on 12 May 2026 at: 👇
🔗 https://www.facebook.com/reel/2125104028279556

Huge congratulations and warmest best wishes to Kylie on this marvellous Rose journey she has just begun. ✨🧭🌈💖 We’ll be cheering her on throughout her tenure — and all the way to the Rose of Tralee International Festival in County Kerry, Ireland, this summer. 🌹☘️🌟

Rose of Tralee International Festival
Irish Cultural & Benevolent Society of Toronto
Consulate General of Ireland, Toronto
The Goggin Stewart School of Irish Dance
The Canadian Irish Dance Company
Trinity Irish Dance Company
Newfoundland & Labrador Rose of Tralee
Rose of Tralee Ottawa Centre
Western Canada Rose Centre - Rose of Tralee International Festival
The OIDA Claddagh Ball

05/07/2026

The Fall Celtic Festival is proud to introduce Kylie Paliani, the newly appointed 2026 Toronto Rose of Tralee 🌹☘️✨ — selected at last weekend’s 58th Toronto Rose Selection Ball, an event the Festival was honoured to sponsor.

Kylie’s achievements make her a brilliant representative and role model: she holds a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering, works in Sports Medicine and Orthopaedics, and performs with two professional Irish dance companies — The Canadian Irish Dance Company and Trinity Irish Dance Company. ☘️🇨🇦🩰 She received her expert dance training from our Festival partner, The Goggin Stewart School of Irish Dance. 💚☘️✨

Huge congratulations and warmest best wishes to Kylie on this marvellous Rose journey she has just begun. ✨🧭🌈💖 We’ll be cheering her on throughout her tenure — and all the way to the Rose of Tralee International Festival in County Kerry, Ireland, this summer. 🌹🇮🇪☘️🌟

Rose of Tralee International Festival
Irish Cultural & Benevolent Society of Toronto
Consulate General of Ireland, Toronto
The Goggin Stewart School of Irish Dance
The Canadian Irish Dance Company
Trinity Irish Dance Company
Newfoundland & Labrador Rose of Tralee
Rose of Tralee Ottawa Centre
Western Canada Rose Centre - Rose of Tralee International Festival
Fall Celtic Festival

04/24/2026

✨🌟⚡ Today marks an exciting musical milestone with the release of “Get Up” — a brand-new original track from one of the Fall Celtic Festival stage’s best-loved headliners, the multiple-award-winning band Fiddlestix.

“Get Up” shows the band’s creative engine running at full tilt in their signature Fiddle Rock style — the genre-bending blend of Folk, Pop, and Country Music (all categories with deep historical roots in Celtic musical traditions) created by violinist Steve Bowen and given its name by Y108 Rocks Hamilton.

Every band member sounds in top form on the track with their layered, collective vocals — and Scott Apted’s soulful tone adding its familiar warmth 🎤 alongside his driving percussion 🥁; Nancy Ploeg’s bright guitar lines 🎸; Matthew Bowker’s steady, melodic bass foundation 🎸; and of course Steve’s extended signature fiddle flourishes 🎻 threading through the track. All four sound as though they’re reveling in this new musical ride — and fans will, too.

Congratulations, Fiddlestix, on the release of your new track, and above all for pushing Celtic creativity forward with the kind of energy that evolves, expands, and electrifies. 🎶🦄🐉💡🔥💚💫

Music video 🎻🎸🥁🎤🎥🎛️⬇:
🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4muyj3ru

Fiddlestix
Steve Bowen Electric Violinist
Steve Bowen
Nancy Ploeg
Scott Apted

04/23/2026

It’s National Tourism Week in Canada 🍁 (April 20–24, 2026)—a time to celebrate the events, experiences, people, and places that make Oakville an attractive and welcoming destination. Visit Oakville’s 16 April 2026 News Release highlights how tourism strengthens communities, supports local businesses 🏬🍽️, and drives economic growth 📈 across our region.

The Fall Celtic Festival is proud to be part of these dynamics. Each year, we welcome visitors from across Canada, the United States, and beyond 🌍—contributing to the cultural vibrancy, local business activity, and visitor spending that National Tourism Week recognizes as essential to Oakville’s and Canada’s economies.

🌊⚓⛵🌳🛍️🛏️🍽️ If you’re planning to attend the Festival this September, here are updated visitor information links to help you organize your visit: 👇
🔗 https://tinyurl.com/42dyfrhd

Visit Oakville
Ontario Culture Days
Tourism Industry Association of Canada
Town of Oakville
Oakville Feis

04/20/2026

A few weeks ago we spoke to Lindsey O'Connell of the Fall Celtic Festival's headliner band The O'Deadlys — one of the best local tin whistle players we’ve ever heard — about today’s growing resurgence of the tin whistle as a Celtic instrument of choice. 🪈🌟💫

Two more examples that jumped out at us recently are:

1️⃣ In December 2025, RTÉ’s massively popular Late Late Toy Show on RTÉ One presented a stunning arrangement of star Irish band Kingfishr’s beloved song “Killeagh”, beginning with a tin whistle solo. 🎄🪈✨🌠 (Video link: ⬇
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMcisFD5Zag)

2️⃣ When Nick Booker of the Celtic folk band All Those Who Wander visited Toronto from Ohio in March 2026 to help the Toronto Cornish Association celebrate St. Piran’s Day, he began his set by playing three tunes on the tin whistle before singing or playing another note on any other instrument. 🌊🪈🌟

Now Lovin Dublin has posted an informative article on the new tin whistle trends for both professional and amateur musicians. To locate the article, click on: ⬇
🔗 https://tinyurl.com/yc5v9ad5. Next, click on the link in the first comment on the post, then scroll down quite a long way to “The Tin Whistle Renaissance in Ireland”. 📚🪈🌌☘

The O'Deadlys
Lindsey O'Connell
RTÉ
RTÉ One
The Late Late Show
Kingfishr
All Those Who Wander
Toronto Cornish Association
Lovin Dublin

04/19/2026

A few weeks ago we spoke to Lindsey O'Connell of the Fall Celtic Festival's headliner band The O'Deadlys — one of the best local tin whistle players we’ve ever heard — about today’s growing resurgence of the tin whistle as a Celtic instrument of choice. 🪈🌟💫

Two more examples that jumped out at us recently are:

1️⃣ In December 2025, RTÉ’s massively popular Late Late Toy Show on RTÉ One presented a stunning arrangement of star Irish band Kingfishr’s beloved song “Killeagh”, beginning with a tin whistle solo. 🎄🪈✨🌠
(Video link: 🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMcisFD5Zag)

2️⃣ When Nick Booker of the Celtic folk band All Those Who Wander visited Toronto from Ohio in March 2026 to help the Toronto Cornish Association celebrate St. Piran’s Day, he began his set by playing three tunes on the tin whistle before singing or playing another note on any other instrument. 🌊🪈🌟

Now Lovin Dublin has posted an informative article on the new tin whistle trends for both professional and amateur musicians. To locate the article, click on the post shared below or
🔗 https://tinyurl.com/yc5v9ad5. Next, click on the link in the first comment on the post, then scroll down quite a long way to “The Tin Whistle Renaissance in Ireland.” 📚🪈🌌🇮🇪

The O'Deadlys
Lindsey O'Connell
RTÉ
RTÉ One
The Late Late Show
Kingfishr
All Those Who Wander
Toronto Cornish Association
Lovin Dublin

The tin whistle is back in a big way

04/16/2026

Medal winners at the recent World Irish Dancing Championships (Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne) in Chicago included a remarkable cohort from The Goggin Stewart School of Irish Dancee — one of the Fall Celtic Festival’s foremost Irish dance experts. 💚☘🩰✨

Pictured are the school’s two championship Céilí teams:
• Girls Under 16 (left)
• Ladies Under 19 (top right)
Each team is joined by school founder and principal instructor Barb Goggin, whose leadership continues to shape some of the strongest dancers in the global Irish dance community. 🌍☘💃🕺💫

Many Festival followers will remember seeing these superb dancers during the school’s St. Patrick’s Day tour ☘🚌 across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area — and now the Worlds judges have reaffirmed their standing as top-tier, world-class performers. 🌎🏅⚡

If you missed their local tour, the attached video (bottom right) offers a brief glimpse of the older team’s precision, athleticism, musicality, and grace. ✨🎶💃🩰😮🌟

For the Fall Celtic Festival, it remains a thrill and a privilege to showcase this calibre of Irish dance each September through our partnership with the school and the Oakville Feis. 🍀💃🕺🏆💫

To the Goggin-Stewart dancers and teachers--not only those pictured in the post but also many others--who brought home so many victories from Chicago: congratulations on an extraordinary achievement. 🌟🌈🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🌈🌟

The Goggin Stewart School of Irish Dance
Oakville Feis
Barb Goggin

04/14/2026

✨🏔️ The Guthrie School of Dance— one of the Fall Celtic Festival's Highland dance experts — posted this video clip from their performances on Sunday, April 12/26 at Betty's East in Toronto. 🦄💫

It shows four dancers performing a reel to bagpipes and drums. 💃💃🕺🏻💃🥁🎶

A reel is a traditional Celtic dance — and also a musical form in 2/4 or 4/4 time — that originated in Scotland no later than the 16th century (and likely earlier). In Scottish Highland dance, a reel is performed by a set of dancers who weave through interlacing lines and formations, alternating with solo steps in place. ✨🏔️🦄💫

After the reel spread to Ireland in the late 18th century, it became a central feature of traditional Irish dance. Later, reels travelled to North America with Scottish, Irish, and English settlers and immigrants, influencing many musical and dance traditions, including Cajun, Zydeco, Cape Breton, Acadian, Québécois, and Métis. 🌍🎻🪗🎶🔥

Watch the video at: 📹⬇
🔗 https://tinyurl.com/3j9ws3d7

Guthrie School of Dance

04/07/2026

As part of this week’s Tartan Day celebrations, you can catch dynamic, innovative performances by the Guthrie School of Dance 🦄🎶🏔️ — one of the Fall Celtic Festival’s brilliant Highland dance partners.

📅 Date: Sunday, April 12, 2026
📍 Place: Betty’s East, 1301 Queen Street East, Toronto
🌐 Venue: 🔗 www.bettystoronto.com
⏰ Time: 4:30 p.m. till late

Tartan Day is an annual celebration for the worldwide Scottish diaspora 🌍🧵🧶 — a time to honour Scottish heritage, identity, and the anniversary of Scotland’s Declaration of Arbroath on April 6, 1320. Originating in Nova Scotia in 1987, adopted by New Brunswick in 1993, and recognized as a national observance by the Government of Canada in 2010, it continues to grow as a vibrant global expression of Scottish culture. 🦄🔥🌈

Guthrie School of Dance
Fall Celtic Festival