Dreams come true

Almost a decade later, Pierre Schryer said he had fulfilled his dream of staying connected to his heritage while creating a festival to engage and educate people in traditional Celtic culture.

Schryer’s dream became the annual Canadian Celtic Celebration, which had its first weekend -long event at the Valhalla Inn on Friday. About 90 people participated in workshops to learn a few new dance steps, fiddle a tune or jam in a guitar session.

When Schryer lived in Sault Ste Marie about 11 years ago, he held a single Celtic event, which grew into a tour of Northwestern Ontario. When he and his wife moved to Thunder Bay nine years ago, they decided that they would make the event bigger and not focused on the tour, he said.

"It’s exciting for us that this event is actually the dream I had many years ago," Schryer said. "I wanted to make it like a festival so it’s interactive where young and young at heart are involved in learning about the culture of Canadian Celtic music."

Schryer said Celtic culture is part of his heritage and grew up performing fiddle music with his two siblings. He said it’s exciting to have that Celtic culture come to Thunder Bay and glad to spread the culture to other parts of the community.

While some Celtic celebrations, such as St. Patrick’s day, traditionally focus more on drinking, Schryer said his festival tried to move away from the party mentality but keep the energy and excitement that’s associated with it to promote Celtic music.

"The culture is quite diverse," he said. "It’s all from the Celtic traditions: Wales, Scotland, Ireland. Those areas have promoted Celtic music, art and culture and Canadians are still connected through that cultural background."

As the event turns 10 years ago, Schryer said he would like to make the festival a week long for next year.

The Celtic celebration concludes on Sunday with youth performer showcase at 2 p.m. and a final concert at 7:30 p.m. Admission by donation for the youth performance. Tickets cost $20 for adults, seniors and students $14, children six to 10 $10 and children five and under are free for the final concert.