Every summer the Festival runs several "cruise concerts" on one or other of the tour-boats in Parry Sound: the 60-passenger Chippewa or the 3-deck, 450-passenger Island Queen. The Island Queen cruises are usually given over to a more popular or lighter style of music than the main Festival programmes offer, and they're always good fun.
The ship sails at 6:00 pm this year, and goes on a two-hour tour through the islands in the northern part of the Big Sound, returning through the famous "Hole in the Wall" and so back to town by 8:00 pm, leaving plenty of time for a late dinner. During that two hours, the musicians will play two sets of their music.
You can, if you wish, stay seated on the indoors lower deck and watch the whole show. For my money, though, weather permitting, it's much more fun to stay on the top outdoor deck in the sun and watch the scenery unfold. The ship has a first-rate sound system so you can hear all the music just as well as if you were indoors and downstairs!
Monday night's event was a "Celtic Cruise" with a Cape Breton-based band called Coig. It says a lot for the popularity of Celtic music that the cruise was sold out!
Part of the fun of these cruise shows is the between-numbers patter, and the four members of Coig did a fine job of it! It was very plain that they were thoroughly enjoying themselves, playing on the water (for the first time) and in Ontario's cottage country (for the first time too). With a fine sense of fun they included a Gaelic singalong, invited people to get up and dance if they wished (some did), encouraged the upper deck passengers who were applauding by foot stomping, and generally created the atmosphere of a genuine Cape Breton ceilidh.
One of the best moments came as we sailed along a narrow channel between mainland and island, both dotted with cottages. Plenty of people had been waving at us, but on one dock there was a woman who leapt from her deck chair and began dancing an impromptu Highland Fling as we sailed by with Celtic music blasting from our outdoor speakers! Good for her!
A totally delightful way to wrap up a summer day with some evening music on the waters of Georgian Bay!
No comments:
Post a Comment