Tag Archives: Big Stone Celtic

Haste Ye Back!

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As the year rolls around we have personal ‘seasons’. For me that includes ‘Festival Prep Season’ when I spend a month or so going around with little post-it-notes on every surface of the bookstore plus virtual ones in my head, all for the sake of Big Stone Celtic, our annual celebration of all things Celtic.

Now in its sixth year BSC, as it’s affectionately known, aims to make the connection between the ‘Scotch-Irish’ of Appalachia and their Celtic forbears. It’s unusual for two big reasons: modeled on traditional music festivals in Scotland, Ireland and Brittany it takes place downtown, using a variety of venues all within 5 minutes’ walk of each other; and it incorporates music, song, stories, workshops, dance, games and food to reflect the culture of all 7 Celtic Nations – Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Brittany, The Isle of Man, Cornwall and Galicia.

This year we are introducing an evening concert on Friday Sept. 27 up at Mountain Empire Community College, and then a full day of events on Saturday Sept. 28. Saturday kicks off as usual with a 26 mile bike race (The Tour de Crackers Neck). There are five music venues (up from three last year!):  The June Tolliver Theater, The Farmers’ Market, The Presbyterian Church, The Mining Museum and The Fox House.

Coinciding with the bike race is a gentler ‘fun bike’ for kids around the town Greenbelt, following the two rivers and meandering past the faces carved into the trees at our local campground. Workshops will be in our bookstore and samples of Celtic food (including Haggis, Cornish Pasties and Irish Potato Pie) will be served at the Presbyterian Church hall.

As if that wasn’t enough the library will also be hosting children’s activities throughout the afternoon, as will Miner’s Park; the ones at the park involve tossing lightweight cabers and getting dirty; the ones at the library involve crayons and music.

Everything is free except the food at the church hall, which is our festival’s biggest fundraiser; food is $5 per plate. Outside this, we are dependent on donations to pay for everything and are especially grateful to the many businesses and individuals who have donated once again this year, economic up-down swings and all.

All the flags in one!

All the flags in one!

The latest iteration of our schedule is up on the festival website but continues to be subject to revision – www.bigstoneceltic.com

Our main guest this year is Iona, a wonderful and very authentic group who play music from all the Celtic Nations. (And we are very grateful that a regional arts organization, PRO ART, has sponsored them!) As usual they will be supported by a wide range of other artists, including our ‘house-band’ Sigean and Doug Bischoff (of former Coyote Run fame). Doug’s wife Heather will be giving a workshop on creative writing.

Finally – not many people get the joke in the festival’s name. Most of the Celtic lands have ancient stone circles or individual ‘standing stones’ dotted around the countryside – big stones!

Y’all come. It’s going to be grand!

Could Haggis Be the New Hot Dog?

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(In the aftermath of Big Stone Celtic, Andrew Whalen guest blogs, as Wendy and Jack lie in darkened rooms with cold cloths on their foreheads. Thanks, Andrew!)

 

Saturday past was the Big Stone Celtic Festival. I loped around with a can of dandelion & burdock, watched people try on druidic-looking cloaks, learned that a bombard was more than just something the Air Force does, and tried a wee bit of haggis dabbed on a slice of bread. And while I have loads of nice things to say about all the performers (no one tells stories quite like John Skelton… or laughs at stories quite like Tim Smith, whose Theremin I never had the opportunity to hear) I really want to talk about the haggis.

I was aware of haggis, but like most Americans I only knew it as a disgusting dish that Scottish people inexplicably pretend to enjoy. It’s made up of sheep “pluck” (organs) leavened a bit with oatmeal, onions and other spices. This is all stuffed into a sausage casing to the approximate plumpness of a grapefruit. It also comes in cans, leaving the market wide open for someone to make the first haggis pudding cups. It’s one of those dishes that inspires an entire culture of serious and silly events, like Burns Supper, haggis hurling, and haggis eating records.

Haggis tastes like polyps of large-grained brown rice held together by a savory paste. It has a similar richness to bone marrow, but less gloopy yolkiness. The brown mash that glues together the oats would probably be revolting alone, like licking a spoon of sludge. It has that umami ability to coat the tongue, leaving you feeling like your food is a lingering mouth guest. But with the oatmeal (and, if that’s not enough, whisky sauce or mashed potatoes) it becomes something rich in texture and taste.

It’s a best-in-small-doses kind of food, which makes me wonder why they only sell it in heavy softball-sized lumps. Why can’t I get this instead of a hot dog?  Where are all the food innovators? Surely the inventor of the corn dog or the White Castle scientist who thought up chicken rings could do something amazing with haggis. Or are you going to make me wait? I can see it now. The year: 2047.  Astonishing new technology has discovered a way to encase haggis into a more palatable shape. Served on a bun with some ketchup, it’s now the most popular snack at the mecha-laserball moon arena. Can’t capitalism make this happen any sooner?