Sudbury's Northern Lights Festival Boreal gets ready to rock its 45th year

Northern Lights Festival Boreal will have a distinctly Down East sound with the headliners for its 45th anniversary show.

Fiddlers Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy — described as "contemporary Celtic" musicians — will headline the July 8-10 show that takes place in Sudbury's Bell Park.

A Sudbury couple, Kate Maki and Fred Squire, are also in the line-up. After getting married following a tour, they've settled in Copper Cliff to raise a family.

"Lucky for us, they never stopped writing music," a festival news release states.

Maki's upcoming sixth album, Head In The Sand, is to be released in May, with Squire's new record following shortly after.

Toronto bluegrass combo Union Duke will appear at the festival for the first time.

The group has been in Sudbury a few times before, thanks to a few house concerts, and a slot at Vale's summer concert series last summer.

And children's entertainer Cindy Cook of the Polka Dot Door returns to her old stomping grounds. Cook was born in Sudbury.

Festival organizers say they will be making more lineup announcements in the coming months before the summertime music jamboree.