The Official Celtic Awards Night proved a huge success with locals and visitors filling the Glen Innes and District Services Club last Saturday.
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And it was a year of milestone anniversaries with the Celtic Music Awards now incorporated into the event.
In addition to the music awards, the 2017 recipients of the Triquetera Awards were announced – honouring those who have contributed to the Celtic community and culture.
The main Triquetera award went to Margaret Kenning while the Achiever Triquetera went to Barbara Timmins (OAM).
“We had a lot of families this year and we also had six recipients for the Celtic roll of honour which was celebrated due to being the 25th year of the Celtic Festival,” organiser Julie Clement said.
“They were all instrumental in the construction of the Stones and it was very special because they are local families.”
Ms Clement said Lex Ritchie’s son Jim and Lex’s grandson accepted an award of behalf of the family while George Rozynski’s wife kept the bottle of whiskey that was poured into the first hole where the first stone was stood at the Standing Stones.
“We had 150 guests for dinner and everyone from the Australian Celtic Festival Committee, the Standing Stones Management Board, the mayor Steve Toms and Lady Mayoress Judi attended,” she said.
“We also had visitors from Armidale and Tenterfield councils, as well as artists and their families.”
String Loaded Celtic Fiddle Band took out a bunch of awards including Artist of the Year, Celtic Group of the Year, Instrumental of the Year [for Morrison’s Jig] and Album of the Year [for Beggars and Butterflies].
Ben Heneghan and Ian Lawson won Producer of the Year for Entwined and Wendy Watts New Celtic Talent of the Year was taken out by The String Family.
Darren Coggan won Male Artist of the Year while the female award went to Siobhan Owen.
Celtic Song of the Year was won by The String Family for The Journey.
The irrepressible and entertaining Darren Coggan acted as MC, with Mike McClellan also performing.