| This is a copy of an article I sent to the Southwest Celtic Music Association (of which we are members) newsletter. Although it contains some stuff that has appeared in previous updates, I thought I'd go ahead and forward it to everyone else.
TO: SCMA newsletter editor
FROM: Mary Lynn Maloney 17 September, 1997
An intoxicatingly aromatic turf fire flickers gently on the hearth in front of me. Through the window behind me the wind whips the dark blue surf, the purple heather, and the uncountable shades of green grasses into a wild ripple. Victor and I are renting a wee cottage in this rural coastal village and surrounding ourselves with the sights and smells of this ancient Celtic country. For the past six weeks we've also been savoring the sounds of Celtic culture as we've travelled to music and art festivals in Brittany and Scotland.
Festival Interceltique, held in the town of Lorient, France, was our first stop along our "Celtic Route." Lorient is in Brittany, the northwest coastal region of France. Brittany retains an idependent, Celtic identity apart from France, complete with its own language - Breton - still surviving in the schools and the speech of some residents. We arrived in the town to find that the hostel had no record of our reservations and, because of the festival, they were completely booked. So was every other type of accommodation within walking distance of the festivities. We wound up in a modern, but way over-budget, hotel which was a twenty minute drive from the festival. Not an auspicious beginning. No bus came out that far and, having no car, we had to taxi to town.
Once there, we discovered that the venues were not all in one convenient, central location but, rather, spread out over many blocks, with the largest venue being several miles away. We bought a program and found it all to be in French. |
