Arizona Irish Festival CELEBRATES Ireland

Ancient and Modern

MUSIC * DANCE * FOOD!

Who:

The Irish Cultural & Learning Foundation

What:

The Arizona Irish Festival ~ Where everyone is a wee bit Irish!

When:

Saturday, October 31, 2009 from 10am~8pm

Where:

Irish Cultural Center, 1106 N. Central Avenue* Phoenix, AZ 85004 and Margaret T. Hance (Deck) Park

602.308.4601

Tickets:

Adults $10, Children 6-12 $1, Children under 6, FREE!

We want to welcome you warmly to the Ninth Annual Arizona Irish

Festival. Join us as we celebrate Ireland in all its many faces and

expressions: old and new, across the pond and in our own backyard.

Did you know that some half a million Arizonans are of Irish descent? …

and we sometimes think all the rest want to be...at least at the

Festival!

HARP STAGE ENTERTAINMENT

Featuring the Best of Local and Regional Traditional Irish Music and Dance

Emcee: Pat McCrossan

Pat McCrossan

The Knockabouts

Traveler

Tramor (Overseas)

The Irish Dance Schools of Arizona

PUB STAGE ENTERTAINMENT

Featuring the Best of Local and Regional Modern Irish Music and Dance

Emcee TBA

The McMorrows

The Brazen Heads

Brid Dower

The Biffos

October 5th Gaelic Class , Thorpe Park Adult Center, 6:30

October 6th NACHS Meeting, Thorpe Park Adult Center, 6:00 PM

October 12th Gaelic Class, Thorpe Park Adult Center, 6:30

October 19th Gaelic Class, Thorpe Park Adult Center, 6:30

October 26th Gaelic Class, Thorpe Park Adult Center, 6:30

October 31st Arizona Irish Festival, Margaret Hance Park

Learn Gaelic!

Richard Ferguson continues to teach a weekly conversational Scottish Gaelic class for beginning and intermediate speakers, using the Teach Yourself Gaelic materials. In the classes, students can also pick up Scottish cultural and historical information! Best of all, the classes are FREE! Join Richard Mondays, 6:30-8:00pm at the Flagstaff Adult Center, 245 Thorpe Rd.

Looking for volunteers!

If anyone is planning to go to the Tucson Celtic Festival (Nov. 7 & 8) and has time

to volunteer in the NACHS please call Jude at 928-556-3161. Thanks!

SINGER/SONGWRITER AND CELTIC MUSIC AT THE ‘MAD I” 10 OCTOBER

**** A “SECOND SATURDAY SONGWALK” EVENT ****

Progressive folk songster Vyktoria Pratt-Keating will team up with local Celtic band “Pure Dead Brilliant” for a dual concert at the

Mad Italian Saturday 10 October. Vyktoria’s material spans self-penned songs ranging in style from progressive rock to sci-fi folk, and

a range of Celtic songs as well. A regular of Sedona and the region, Vkytoria has opened for acts such as Jethro Tull, toured the USA

and the Britain, and released 6 CDs. She is looking forward to getting to Flagstaff for a joint performance of both her work and Celtic

numbers she has customized with her driving guitar style and stunning pure voice. Pure Dead Brilliant, a 6-piece Celtic band, have

played together for many years to develop their distinct sound, full of harmony-driven songs and fun and fast tunes. Irish, Scottish,

American, Old tyme even “Green Day” songs are included in their material! It’s bound to be a fun, lyrical and satisfying night of great

songs and melodies.

7:30pm on, The Mad Italian, 101 S. San Francisco St, Flagstaff. Ph: 779-1820.

For further information, check out the websites: www.vyktoria.com, or call 928-204-0537, or 928-607-3688.

Moran Taink...many thanks

Many thanks to Pure Dead Brilliant for organizing Half Way to St. Patrick's Day! It was a fun afternoon with great

soda bread and a neat Irish Jeopardy game and music to boot!!! Thanks also to Brenda Taylor, Rich & Benita

Boyd for helping host the Celtic Society area at the Sedona Celtic Festival. We made a big impression with out

wheat weaving demo!

At The Mad Italian

101 S. San Francisco St, Flagstaff

Saturday October 10th

7:30 PM till Late

VYKTORIA P. KEATING & "PURE DEAD BRILLIANT"

For more information call: 928-779-1820

CELTIC MUSIC NIGHT

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain

(pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the

United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on

November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and

the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often

associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the

new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead

became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain,

when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In

addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the

presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or

Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely

dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an

important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the

people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic

deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of

animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes.

When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they

had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help

protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the

course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two

festivhttp://www.rats2u.com/halloween/clipart/flying-bat.jpgals of

Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of

Samhain.

Directory of Celtic Arts

For Lessons:

Bagpipe , Flagstaff

Jim Thomson: 928.522.8797

Bodhran

Ron Barton: 928.774.7261

Fiddle & Irish Dance

Kari Barton: 928.600.1365

For Performance and Music:

Bagpipers

Jim Thomson: 928.522.8797

The Knockabouts

John McGregor: 928.814.2480

www.knockabouts.org

Cans for Bands Project: Don't forget to save those aluminum cans for our "Cans for Bands" project! Call Jim Thomson at 522-8797 to arrange a drop-off at his shop (Thomson and Son Bagpipes, 555 Blackbird Roost

#7).

Pure Dead Brilliant

Rebecca Cooke: (928) 607-3688