QuebecFest featuring Le Vent du Nord, De Temps Antan & Grosse Isle

8:45pm GMT*

The award winning and highly acclaimed band Le Vent du Nord is a leading force in Quebec’s progressive francophone folk movement.  The group’s vast repertoire draws from both traditional sources and original compositions, while enhancing it’s hard-driving soulful music (rooted in the Celtic diaspora) with a broad range of global influences. Since its inception in August 2002, Le Vent du Nord has enjoyed meteoric success, performing well over 2,000 concerts over 4 continents and racking up several prestigious awards, including a Grand Prix du Disque Charles Cros, two Junos (Canada’s Grammys), a Félix at ADISQ, a Canadian Folk Music Award, and “Artist of the Year” at Folk Alliance Annual Gala.

Comprising a mix of current and former members of Québec’s legendary La Bottine Souriante - Éric Beaudry, David Boulanger and Pierre-Luc Dupuis - De Temps Antan channel that same boundless energy and euphoric joie de vivre into a big, buoyant, multi-layered sound that thrillingly belies their number. Featuring three-part vocals with fiddle, accordion, harmonica, guitar, bouzouki, mandolin and foot-percussion, their superb arrangements of classic songs and tunes blend deep traditional roots with cosmopolitan contemporary influences.

Grosse Isle is a trio of “musiciens sans frontières who refuse to let the Atlantic sunder their love of their own and one another’s Irish and Québecois musical traditions”. Comprising of Irish uilleann piper Fiachra O’Regan, Québec fiddler/singer Sophie Lavoie, and guitarist André Marchand, the trio take traditional Irish and Québécois traditional music, blended with Lavoie’s “lithe and masterful” compositions. Their choice of songs will “captivate the most casual listener”. “It’s refreshing to hear a traditional band reference the present with such subtlety and finesse.” (The Irish Times)

Plus, three fervent stepdancers, three different styles, from three regions of Quebec, Canada,  Louis Gloutnez, Élisabeth Moquin and Jessica St-Pierre came together for an evening. 

This event has been made possible through the support of the Québec Government Office in London.

*This performance will be available to watch for one week after the live date to accommodate different time zones.

This performance is included in the Celtic Connections 2021 festival pass, so you will not need to purchase this event if you have already purchased a pass.