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Paul J. Goetz
Paul@CanyonCurrent.com
Festiville Productions is sponsoring a Gaelic Highland Festival “Themed Window Contest” during the month of June.
Merchants throughout Downtown Cañon City are invited to participate in the event and the public is invited to vote on their favorite windows.
“The window contest will be judged by a panel of local media personalities, and we wanted to involve the public so we are inviting them to vote on the best window too,” said Debbie Craig, owner of Moondance Events Center.
Downtown shoppers will have the opportunity to walk along Main Street and decide which window they like the best. Then they can vote by taking their ballot to several local merchants, including the Book Corral, Celtic Chrysalis, Creative Cloth Closet, Diggers Den Rock Shop, DiRito’s Restaurant, Moondance and the Off the Top Hair Salon.
Merchants interested in joining the contest should have window displays up by Friday June 10. Members of the media will judge windows by June 15.
Windows will be judged according to Gaelic theme, originality, local promotion, and community interest.
First place winner of the event will receive a $200 prize from Festiville Productions, second and third place prizes will also be awarded.
Awards will be announced Saturday, June 18 at 7 P.M. during the Family Ceilidh (kay-lee) at the St. Cloud Hotel.
“I know as a business owner myself, we don’t have a lot of time to put forth toward this impromptu window display event and being late in the game makes the task that more daunting,” Craig said. “I believe we can rise to the occasion and show our community that we are here and there is fun to be had.”
Paul J. Goetz
Paul@CanyonCurrent.com
Visitors to Ireland pile onto airplanes with their bags stuffed full of Guinness T-shirts, wool sweaters and Celtic crosses, leaving their Emerald Isle vacations with more than just trinkets. Within a few years these items are lost among the worn out and derelict souvenirs of each passing vacation, but what visitors to Ireland never forget is the warm hospitality and joy of the Irish people.
This year the Gaelic Highland Festival in Cañon City will be offering a small piece of Irish hospitality with a traditional Irish breakfast. Served by the staff at the historic Holy Cross Abbey Events Center, breakfast will include traditional Irish fare brought in especially for the event by foodireland.com.
“Breakfast will include all of the old favorites, including, black and white puddings, Irish Sausages, fried eggs, grilled tomatoes, imported rashers and soda bread. On top of all that, patrons will be treated to special entertainment,“ festival coordinator Erin Butz said.
Peace and Love and Jigs and Reels, will be entertaining with Irish folk music and folk tales. Local favorites Greg Hansen and Cynthia Jaffe will have audience members mesmerized as they tell the stories behind Irish music while playing them on guitar and flute.
Musician Jonathan Ramsey will be offering his energetic and upbeat yet true to Irish musical style, to the breakfast table throughout the day. Ramsey's intimate knowledge of Irish music builds up from warm ballads to rebel songs and pint banging pub songs. He is sure to delight festival goers as they enjoy a taste of Ireland.
The Gaelic Highland Festival boasts the only Full Irish Breakfast at a festival in the United States. The cost of this event is just $25 per person, a terrific bargain brought all the way from the old country. Breakfast and other Highland events will be held in Cañon City from June 17 through the 19 at the historic Holy Cross Abbey. The breakfast will be served from 9 a.m. until closing, Saturday, June 19, and advance reservations for the Full Irish Breakfast are requested online at gaelicfestival.com or by phone at (719) 276-FEST.
Paul J. Goetz
Paul@CanyonCurrent.com
After last year’s Harvest Festival Erin Butz, of Festiville Productions, LLC, and Owner of Wicked Brew Coffee House, was approached by several members of the community. They asked her if she would be interested in organizing a Gaelic Highland Festival.
“We’ve been a quasi festival organization for a long time, but after I was asked to do the Highland Festival I just took it to the next step and formed an LLC,” she said.
After months of planning and ground work, the Highland Festival will take place on Father’s Day weekend in June and includes a powerful tourist draw combination of games, music, art, food and beverages based around the Irish and Scottish traditions. The core of the events will be held near the Holy Cross Abbey but there will also be downtown attractions.
Last week a newspaper promotion in the “News Tribune,” a daily paper in Chicago, Ill., described the event, giving tourists an idea of what they could do while visiting southern Colorado on Father’s Day Weekend.
Cañon City really went out of their way to support this event,” she said.
“I’m doing this to help build a community and increase tourism and economic development. We are encouraging merchants in the downtown area of Cañon City to act as their own vendors and theme their stores for Gaelic minded consumers. We are even offering our services to help store owners plan for the event,” she said.
Several Main Street merchants are already on board with the idea including Pizza Madness, Main Street Espresso and the Book Corral.
“We’ve been scouting vendors for the past six months, but they will not be allowed to set up vending on Main Street, giving the merchants a better opportunity on Main Street, where there will be two music stages set up,” she said.
Both Festiville and Cañon City have been working hard at organizing the event, a point that both City Manager Steve Rabe and Butz wanted to make.
“It was one of the better applications we have ever received,” said Rabe. “She worked extensively with staff to make sure she provided all of the information we needed and she took guidance as well.”
Festiville is currently looking for corporate sponsors for the event. Sponsorships start at $25 for small business and go up to a $5,000 sponsorship, which includes the sponsorship of 16 non-profit exhibition booths and a full color ad in the festival program.
This Chicago daily paper featured The 2005 Gaelic Highland Festival in their calendar of events.
See the article here
April 16, 2005
For Immediate Release
Contact
Erin Butz
Festiville Productions LLC
(719) 276-3378 ph
(719) 276-2376 fx
erin@festiville.com
www.gaelicfestival.com
Gaelic Highland Festival Woos Scottish Society to Cañon City
Cañon City, CO - April 16, 2005 - Visitors to the Royal Gorge Region are sure to be thrilled this summer during the 2005 Gaelic Highland Festival as Cañon City will be Southern Colorado's new home for The Scottish Society of the Pikes Peak Region. Highland Athletic Competitions and traditional Celtic celebrations will be held throughout Cañon City from June 17 through the 19 and is expected to attract thousands.
The Highland Games go back centuries where tribal clansmen, chiefs and competitors came from all over Scotland and banded together to compete against one another. Often displaying tests of brute force, the competitions match muscle for muscle in a spectacle unlike any other sport in the world.
"We have six different groups of amateurs at the games this year, and if all goes well we will have professionals for the festival next year," said Jim Sim a twenty-year veteran of Scottish Societies currently active with the Scottish Society of the Pikes Peak Region. These sanctioned games earn points applied at the national level.
The Scottish Society has been around the Pikes Peak region since the late 1950s. The society is now working in conjunction with Festiville Production’s “Gaelic Highland Festival” and will be calling the eight and a half acre festival grounds at the historic Holy Cross Abbey in Cañon City their 2005 summer home.
“2005 Gaelic Highland Festival” events include traditional Scottish Highland Games; dance competitions, musical entertainment, food and drink, market place, historical re-enactments, kilted golf tournament, children's games and much more. For complete details of this festival and advance ticket purchase visit www.GaelicFestival.com or simply call (719) 276-FEST (3378).