Celtic music is found everywhere in Boston, flowing from the Irish pubs all over the city to the concert venues year round. But this weekend, the city’s Celtic music scene will come together in celebration.
The 22nd annual Boston Celtic Music Festival will take place from Jan. 16 to 19, offering a series of shows at the legendary folk venue Club Passim, as well as various locations in Davis Square in Cambridge. The festival celebrates music from Irish, Scottish, and other Celtic cultures.
Summer McCall, the festival director of BCMFest, hopes that by creating a single weekend to gather together Boston’s Celtic music scene, she can not only support current musicians but introduce new fans and artists to the genre and its traditions.
“Celtic music is just a very happy genre of music,” McCall said. “I just love providing a space for people to gather and experience joy together, because I think it’s so important for us to find the places that make us happy and the communities that bring that out.”
Many local Celtic bands and musicians will be performing at the festival. Notably, the Irish folk band Dervish, considered one of the most influential groups in contemporary Irish music, will be performing on Jan. 18 at the Crystal Ballroom, a 900-capacity venue at the Somerville Theatre.
This will be BCMFest’s first year using the Crystal Ballroom as a venue, marking a large increase in capacity and reach for the festival. On Jan. 17, the ballroom will also be host to a Scottish ceilidh, a traditional gathering that involves music and dance, with participation encouraged. McCall will be calling the dance, set to a live band.
“Think of square dancing that you had to do in elementary school, but make it Celtic, therefore way more fun,” McCall said. “It’s going to be really, really fun. No experience necessary.”
While Boston’s Celtic music community is both historic and deeply interconnected, McCall believes everyone involved is welcoming of newcomers and new ideas. Besides the Scottish ceilidh, attendees can also participate in a contra dance, the traditional social dance of New England. Open events like these make BCMFest an approachable way for people to engage with Celtic traditions.
“It’s a very strong community, but a very kind one as well,” McCall said. “There’s a lot of on-ramps for people who are interested to get involved and to get a little taste of what it might be like, and there’s a lot of support in the community for people to give it a go.”
McCall herself is a trained cellist and fiddler with a background in many types of dance, including tap, ballet, and Irish step dance, and has a long history with Celtic music—her interest began when she was 13, when her mother took her to fiddle camp in California, and it’s been part of her life since.
“I really just wanted to live in fiddle camp,” McCall said. “Boston is the Celtic music epicenter of America. It’s such a thriving scene here—I’ve known that ever since I was 13.”
Part of the festival will be dedicated to Irish journalist Brian O’Donovan, a cornerstone of the Boston scene, who died in 2023. He was the host of A Celtic Sojourn, a radio show on GBH that promoted traditional and contemporary Irish music, and was considered a pillar of the community. His wife, Lindsay O’Donovan, will be present at the finale to deliver a speech about his legacy, alongside musicians who worked with and knew O’Donovan.
“He would have a big holiday show called the Christmas Celtic Sojourn that kind of put Boston on the map,” McCall said of O’Donovan. “He had countless contributions to the expansion of the Celtic music scene here—he had such an unwavering energy and love for bridging people and helping them enter into this world.”
McCall hopes to further this legacy of promoting local artists and inviting newcomers to the Celtic music scene. BCMFest has made an effort towards increased accessibility with greater capacity and ADA-compliant venues, and she believes the universal appeal of music can make BCMFest a perfect introduction to the world of Celtic music.
“It’s a perfect festival if you’re interested in giving it a try,” McCall said. “When you have that heart-to-heart connection, when you’re in the same room as so many people experiencing the same thing with these ancient instruments—that’s when you start to feel what folk music is all about.”
