Celtic Colours festival confirms new transition team

The society that runs Cape Breton's iconic Celtic Colours International Festival has reached a legal settlement with its recently fired board of directors. 

As a result, a new six-person transition board of directors has taken the reins, effective Dec. 7, the date that members of the Celtic Colours Festival Society voted to dismiss the event's entire board of directors.

While the board initially challenged the decision, its members have now agreed to resign from their positions and allow the transition board to take over.

Halifax-based lawyer Ray Wagner, who represented the society, told CBC's Mainstreet Cape Breton host Wendy Bergfeldt that the society's bylaws allowed it to hold an emergency meeting to deal with issues concerning the society-appointed board.

"We felt that [the Dec. 7 meeting] was properly convened for the betterment of the society, and for all of Cape Breton and how important this Celtic Colours is for so many people on the island, it had to be done on an urgent basis," said Wagner. 

"We could not wait until January, or into February, or potentially even into April, given that so much has to be done to organize and to have everybody ready for the October festival."

New board faces 'significant challenge'

The Celtic Colours changeover follows a tumultuous period for the 27-year-old festival, which hosts concerts and activities in communities across Cape Breton over a 10-day period each October. 

Five senior staff members have resigned over the past year, including three since the end of the 2024 festival. Artistic director Dawn Beaton confirmed her departure on the festival's final night. 

According to a document handed out at the society meeting that ultimately ended with the board's dismissal, Celtic Colours venues were not being looked after properly, with some receiving little to no notice of last-minute changes to the lineup of performers for their concerts. 

Poor treatment of Celtic Colours customers also arose as an issue, with reports of a group of tourists left outside in the rain at the Celtic Colours Festival Club, an after-hours show that occurs nightly at the Gaelic College in St. Anns.

Society member Jacquelyn Scott, a former board chair, said the new transition team and its eventual successors have "a list of 25 or 30 things that they need to do immediately," including addressing complaints of a toxic work environment. 

 "There has to be a bit of that correction there, to make sure that everything was either handled well, or if it wasn't handled well, then how do we go about it next," Scott said. 

"And that's going to be a significant challenge for the new board."

'We're in good hands': interim board chair 

Jennifer Currie, a veteran of the Cape Breton music scene, heads up the new transition board. 

Speaking on CBC's Mainstreet Cape Breton Wednesday afternoon, she said she's optimistic about her team's ability to move the festival forward until a new board of directors can be appointed in early 2025.

"We have many immediate priorities that we're discussing, but one of our priorities is to meet with the staff and to hear them — just to hear them," said Currie, who expressed her confidence in the festival society.

"We're in good hands."

Scott said the news of an agreement between the society and its former board of directors has sparked renewed interest from community members about getting involved with Celtic Colours. 

In a statement released Wednesday morning, outgoing board chair Marcel McKeough said "it was a pleasure and a privilege to serve as chair" and offered his support and best wishes to the transition board and the society.