Festical Venues, Schedule & Tickets

Wednesday March 11

Sionnaine Irish Dance Academy
8:30 PM

Murphy’s Lágh
9:00 PM

Sionnaine Irish Dance Academy & Murphy’s Lágh

This is Doolin’s UnOfficial CelticFest kick-off, and it launches with traditional and modern Irish dance from a talented troupe of young performers from the Sionnaine Irish Dance Academy.

Then it’s Murphy’s Lágh, with leader and Northern Ireland native Damian Brennan (vocals, guitar, tin whistle, bodhran), Shamma Sabir (vocals, fiddle), Mike "Magno" Magnusson (drums) and Cory Curtis (bass guitar). Together these four are a high-energy band that delivers Celtic and Irish pub favourites along with laugh-out-loud onstage routines.

Doolin's Irish Pub
654 Nelson St. @ Granville

Thursday March 12
12 noon – 1:00 PM

Lunch Time Dance with Eire Born Irish Dancers

This dynamic group of young performers from the Nora Pickett Irish Dance Academy excels at both traditional and modern Irish set dance, including hard shoe and soft shoe as well as ceili (large group) dance. They’ve performed with Natalie McMaster who’s a fan, and together these dancers create an energetic and awe-inspiring show that’s guaranteed to light up the Plaza at Granville Square!

Presented by Cadillac Fairview

Music Stage - Granville Square Plaza
200 Granville St. @ Cordova St.

Free Event

Friday March 13
Doors 8:00 PM
Show 9:00 PM

CelticSalsa - Celts & Cubans United!
Featuring The Paperboys together
with Puro Son

The energy and rhythms of two of the world’s great music traditions come together, as two of Canada’s finest Celtic and Salsa bands perform together on stage for the very first time.

The Paperboys' Juno-Award winning music has never stopped evolving. Tom Landa’s band still includes plenty of original Celtic sounds in its eclectic repertoire, but there’s much more on offer these days. Call it 'Guinness with a tequila chaser while listening to an Americana Jukebox'!

Puro Son was created by world-renowned Cuban trumpet player Miguelito Valdes, who has toured with Buena Vista Social Club diva Omara Portuando. His salsa band delivers tight, original arrangements that showcase its seductive and spicy contemporary Cuban sound. The band includes Cuban trumpet player and percussionist Chocolate, whose credentials include a multi-year stint with Cuban maestro Cesar Pedroso’s “Pupy y los que Son Son”.

This unique collaboration will offer great musicianship, a vast range of rhythms with brilliant brass and blazing fiddles and a packed dance floor – all the necessaries for a spectacular night.

Stadium Club @ Edgewater Casino
750 Pacific Blvd.S. (Plaza of Nations)

Advance $20
$26 at door

Service charges apply.

Saturday March 14
7:30 PM & 8:30 PM

Sionnaine Irish Dance Academy

Sionnaine Irish dancers have been a part of the proud tradition of Irish dance for the past six years. They range from ages three to adult, male and female, beginner to advanced and recreational to competitive. The dancers train weekly in both traditional and modern Irish step dancing including hard shoe and soft shoe, as well as ceili (group) dancing and choreographies. The majority of SIDA dancers attend five to ten competitions and/or championships per year. The top dancers travel to compete in the Western Canadian Oireachtas (World Qualifying Rounds) every year. Some of these dancers qualified to compete in the North American Irish Dance Championships in Toronto 2001, Boston 2002, Nashville 2003 and Philadelphia 2004.

Dance Instructor, Michelle Kilby began Irish dancing at the age of four with the Violet Moore School of Irish Dance. She has been competing at the highest level of dance since the age of eleven and qualified for the World Irish Dancing Championships every year since then placing between first and fourth.

www.sionnaine-academy.com

Ceili's Irish Pub & Restaurant
670 Smithe St. @ Granville

Sunday March 15
11:30 AM

6th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade

Where can you find hundreds of thousands of people, all seized with Celtic fever? At the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, of course! This year the parade travels a new route along Georgia Street, beginning at Broughton St., ending up at the Celtic Village outside the Vancouver Art Gallery at Georgia and Howe. Round up your family and friends (and favourite green attire) and enjoy the spectacle of over 2,000 colourfully costumed participants, from pipers and drummers to acrobats and stilt-walkers. The price is still right – absolutely free!

Presented by Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association

Along Georgia St.- from Broughton to Howe St.

Free Event