Featuring three-time Canadian Grand Master Fiddle and Step Dance champions Tom, Kerry, and Julie Fitzgerald, plus multi-instrumentalist and Canadian Folk Music Award-winner Alanna Jenish, The Fitzgeralds are sure to wow Celtic Colours audiences on their first visit to the festival. With roots in Ontario’s renowned Ottawa Valley, their style draws on the region’s rich tradition of fiddling and step dancing, evolving over the past 15 years to include a strong focus on original compositions and arrangements that fuse their traditional fiddle roots with more modern influences. After more than a decade on the road with Cape Breton trad supergroup Còig, Rachel Davis and Darren McMullen refocussed as a duo and released their award-winning debut album, Home, to critical acclaim in 2024. It’s obvious when you watch Rachel and Darren that they’re meant to play music together. There’s an easy way about them, a sense of comfort that comes through in the music, in the mix of their instruments, the blending of their voices, and how their arrangements leave room for each other. They seem to know just when to lay back and when it’s time to “give’er”. This is The Fitzgerald’s last concert at Celtic Colours this year and Rachel and Darren’s only one, so make sure you get tickets for this evening of musical mastery on the northwest coast of Inverness County. It’s a beautiful drive to Belle Côté, north through the scenic Margaree Valley or south from the Chéticamp area in the Cape Breton Highlands, so be sure to take your time and enjoy the view.