Greater Philadelphia Mid-Winter Scottish & Irish Music Festival

This past weekend (Friday & Saturday), I attended the 17^th Annual Greater Philadelphia Mid-​Winter Scottish & Irish Music Festival, held at the Valley Forge Convention Center in King of Prussia, PA.
This was my fourth year in a row attending. I left Haymarket, VA around 11:30 pm-​ish to head up. This year I took the back roads up U.S. 15 through Maryland and Pennsylvania — a longer route to get there — but a much more scenic route — as poet Robert Frost would say: «The road less traveled by…»
The festival is organized by promoter Bill Reid and his organization — «East of the Hebrides Entertainments.»
This year, I was really focused on spending some time watching and listening to four of my favorite bands: Brother, Rathkeltair, Searson, and Scythian.
Because of the way the schedule was organized this year between two stages — I only saw partial performances by Brother and Searson, but I did see full performances by Rathkeltair, Scythian, and an amazing all-​girl group from Ireland — «The Screaming Orphans.»
A few notes:
Brother: No one rocks like these guys. They have such an amazing sound — Didgeridoo, Highland Bagpipes, Drums, Electric Guitar, Whistles, throw in a guest appearance on the Saxaphone. The Didg and the Bagpipes are soooo complimentary the way Brother weaves them together!
Searson: The addition of a new drummer — Mary (only two weeks with the band) and Andrew on Guitar have slowed Searson down one bit. Old man Searson (Mike Searson) retired from the group this past year — but his three daughters are going strong. Awesome performances!
Rathkeltair: This is the first time I’ve seen Rathkeltair perform since Neil Anderson — «The Antipyper,» returned from his military stint of duty in Iraq. God bless him! Rathkeltair kicked major ass. They played a number of songs from their new album: «Big White Van.»
Scythian: Watching Scythian always makes me smile. They somehow intuitively know how to get the crowd fired up, cheering and dancing. It’s such a natural thing the way they do it!
I also caught bits of performances by Five Quid, Albannach, and Hadrian’s Wall.
Pix are here:
It was amazing how many folks turned out. Bill Reid told me they sold more tickets to this year’s festival than any other in history. And the vendors I talked to in the vendor area — seemed to be doing well sales-​wise!