The Festival Today
In 2008, Celtic Connections celebrated its 15th birthday, with festival attendances reaching 120,000 and events taking place across 14 venues throughout Glasgow over 19 days.
Celtic Connections brings in visitors from throughout the world and is an integral and vibrant part of cultural life in Glasgow, with the economic impact on the city reaching £5.8 million in 2007. The festival actively promotes artistic links and cultural exchange across countries, reinforced by Showcase Scotland which brought 200 music industry delegates from 35 different countries to Scotland looking to book Scottish bands for festivals abroad in 2008.
Donald Shaw, a founding member of Capercaillie, is the current Celtic Connections Artistic Director, having been appointed to the role in 2006.
At the core of the festival is the Education Programme, which sees thousands of school children attend free morning concerts experiencing live music ranging from Burns to spiritual and blues. Celtic Connections also continues to foster new and young talent through its Young Tradition and New Voices series of concerts, and through the Danny Kyle Open Stage competition.
Every night of the festival, once the concerts are over, the late-night Celtic Connections Festival Club runs through to the small hours of the morning. No programme is announced in advance, and the club is renowned for one-off collaborations between musicians appearing at the festival.
Celtic Music Radio broadcasts in the Glasgow area on 1530 kHz and on http://www.celticmusicradio.net, and is based in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall during the festival. Celtic Music Radio broadcasts around 7 hours of live material from the venue every day. This includes interviews with performers, reviews and previews of gigs, and live coverage of concerts, including every act on the Danny Kyle Open Stage.
The 2008 festival opened with the Common Ground concert where many of the artists taking part in the event performed together. Donald Shaw, artistic director of the festival, spoke about the future of Celtic Connections as well as the 1,000+ acts and 300+ events taking place in 2008 exclusively online.
Celtic Connections 2009 ran from Thursday 15 January – Sunday 1 February, and featured performances from students on the BA Scottish Music course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
Read more about this topic: Celtic Connections
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