The Lorient Fest 2006 Pics!
|
Lorient InterCeltic Festival 2006. C'est Fantastic!!!!
The Dunoon Argyll Pipeband travelled to the town of Lorient, Brittany, France on 26th July to take part in the biggest Interceltic Festival in the world which was to run for the following 10 days. Little did we know what delights were in store for us!
After an intensive period of rehearsals, the first of 6 night time extravaganzas took place on that first Saturday. Along with the Pitlochry and Blair Atholl Pipe Band and the Adelaide Pipe Band from Australia, we presented an excellent set of Scottish traditional music, which delighted the large audience.
Unfortunately, as it was raining, the Scottish dance group, Keltica, were unable to take part on this evening, but this was the only performance they missed, as every other evening was warm and dry. Keltica are an excellent all-female dancing group comprising some of the best young highland dancers in the country, and the band was delighted not only to the share the same stage with them, but to share the same accommodation too, much to the delight of the younger male members of Dunoon Argyll!
   Local drummer and percussion player, Jim King, also travelled with the band, and was pleased to be invited to join the solo piper in playing for Keltica each evening during their dancing sets.
The programme of evening performances started at 10.30pm, lasted 3 hours and took place in a large open-air stadium with special lighting effects, visual projections on a massive backdrop and a fireworks display at the end of each performance.
The Pipeband also took part in a Grand street parade along with 86 other bands, singing groups and dancers. The response they received during this was phenomenal, and carried some weary legs through a 4 kilometre parade, enjoyed by 78,000 spectators. The lap of honour completed by the Pipeband in the main stadium received great cheers when the Band's newly acquired Drum Major saluted the spectators in the main stand, as the Band performed a well known tune from the Bretagne area.
The Band also performed a 45 minute concert on their own, which included the very first drummers fanfare put together for the drummers by Leading Drummer Bobby Davie.
 This was also performed in the drumming competition on the second Saturday of the trip, and resulted in the drummers being placed second, and coming home with yet another trophy to be very proud of.
A highlight of the concert was the waltz set performed by Pipe Major Jim Prentice, while members of the band invited some from the audience to dance with them.
Two of the bandsmen,
Tom Gallagher and Graeme Stinson, invited dancers from Keltica to dance with them, and so were enticed to dance on the stage, and it has to be said that the girls made our lads look like very good dancers!
The playing of this set had to be done well as the writer of one of the tunes, well known Canadian piper Bob Worrall, was actually present in the audience. We hope he liked the Band's presentation of his music.
Everyone involved with the trip has so many good stories to tell, photographs to share and video footage to show that they will enjoy sharing all of this with their friends and families for a long time to come.
This was a first in many ways for the Dunoon Argyll Pipeband, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that by the end of the festival, Lorient was echoing with the name of Dunoon Argyll, from Scotland.
 The DAPB took part in many entertaining formal and informal music sessions, and also made a great many friends from the Bretagne town of Lorient, and other areas of France too.
We also befriended many of our fellow Celtic performers from countries such as Wales, Ireland, Australia and from all over Scotland.
It was nice to see so many wearing our DAPB T-shirts, which were very much in demand, especially the ones carrying an advert for The Chanter Shop from Dunoon, who we thank for partly sponsoring this venture.
 The Band was richly rewarded for all their efforts by being featured on French TV, in the local press, and by having their youngest member, Innis McCready, aged 6 months, featured in the newspaper dressed in a little kilt and band tee- shirt too, but giving a big yawn, as he has heard it all before!
On the DAPB's return to Dunoon, it shared it's experiences with the townfolk, and during Cowal Games week, the Band incorporated some of its Lorient performance material into their local performances.
|
|
|
DA |
|
| |
The 36th Lorient InterCeltic Festival 2006 |
|
||||
|
|
   |
|
||||
|
|
||||||
 |
Here are some more great photos taken during the festival. If you have any DAPB Photos that you would like to see in this page, please send them by email to our email address: The best ones will be added! Cheers!
|
|
||||
| |
 |
|
||||
| Many thanx to Herve Prat who kindly sent us four great photos! I have added three of them to this page!! Thanx again Herve! | ||||||
| |
 |
|
||||
| |
 |
|
||||
| |
The great Photo above was borrowed from an interesting French website which features lots of superb Lorient Festival photos, and there are more Pics of the Dunoon Argyll Pipe Band in action too! If you'd like to check the website out for yourself, go to: http://drapeauxbretagne.canalblog.com/
|
|
|
|
DA |
|
|
DAPB |
 |
Haste Ye Back!
.