Downtown Vancouver
See http://www.celticfestvancouver.com/parade.php for map

Once again, we took to the streets for the ever-growing annual St Paddy's parade. Of course since Vancouver is such a multi-ethnic city, the parade reflects that, so we only played "Tell Me Ma" 37 times. Our parade was led by Kris, Lisa, Barbara, and someone who's name I've forgotten, and Jaque the Gator. We were joined by stalwart Bryan Siver on snare to help us compete with the pipe bands.

Cambrian Hall
215 East 17th
(1 block East of Main)
Vancouver

Yet another creative and enjoyable event by one of our favourite employers, the Workless Party. (www.worklessparty.org)

To quote their site: "...an event unlike any other event in the history of Vancouver politics. The Work Less Party, Civic Greens and COPE (organized) a cabaret for you."

We did a short stage set to get the evening warmed up and people dancing. Many great costumes, familiar faces, and talent, and a good time was had by all!

see above

Thanks to the careful plotting and planning of the Vancouver Public Space Network and the brave assistance of several hundred pirates (easily identifiable by their eyepatches, parrots, peglegs, and "Aaaarrgh!!!"s), on this dull February evening we stormed the venerable Seabus, much to the surprise of the poor passengers and crew.

Lucky for them, the crew immediately surrendered to our onslaught of horns, fiddle, flute, squeezebox, mandolinish-Croatian-stringed--thingy, and of course our drums. Liberated from their imprisonment of mundanity, the passengers quickly rallied by our side, and we sailed into the sunset victoriously.

Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House

800 East Broadway, Vancouver

Beats on Broadway
Start: 2007-12-14 19:30
End: 2007-12-14 21:30
Timezone: Etc/GMT+7
Location:
Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House
800 East Broadway, Vancouver

Description:
This monthly coffee house is another of the amazingly busy Earl Peach's ambitious endeavours. Hey, has this fellow ever gotten any community service awards? It is possible that he may cause more music to happen than any other single individual in this town.
Only four of us did this show, as many of us had other commitments during the busy holiday season, but that allowed us to concentrate on more sedate vocal pieces and holiday tunes of the Toot kind (i.e. no "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer").

4362 Main, Vancouver, BC

After a nearly three month hiatus while we individually gallavanted around Ireland, France, Latvia, Italy, Turkey, Serbia, Austria, and probably a few others, we converged on this little Main Street Cafe in full force, and to our amazement we still remembered most of our tunes despite not having practiced together since late July!

Although we did have some problems remembering what band we were supposed to be in and the names of our bandmates, not to mention which way around we're supposed to hold our instruments, we managed to pull off a fun show that had very few people running out with their ears covered.

Guca, Serbia

After all was said and done, only one member of the band and an occasional dancer for Toot-a-Lute made it there (Serbia is a bit of a haul from Vancouver), but it was a most worthwhile journey! No mere words can describe this event, check it out at http://www.guca.co.yu/eng/index.php
Or, give us some time to work out arrangements for the hottest party tunes on the planet, and we'll play some of this music for you!

Somewhere in Steveston

We played another cozy little handfasting ceremony in Steveston for two of our fans, and it felt like we should be the ones paying a fee to be there! Excellent food, a lovely crowd of folk dancers and world music afficionados, and a convival atmosphere made this one definitely more play than work. And they actually asked if we were getting tired after only a couple of hours!

Yes, you too could get married to the magnificent melodies of Toot-a-Lute! This is no wimpy classic rock cover band that will play 10 tunes you could hear by flicking on any radio station... no, we will play music that has accompanied the marriages of literally hundreds of thousands of couples in the last 2 or 3 or 4 CENTURIES. There is a good reason why this music has sustained this long... it is for these occasions that it lives on. And we will play for as long as you want... well, for as long as the wine and food holds out anyway. 5 hours? That's nothing for us. 48 hours straight? Might cost a little extra, but we'll do it!

Trout Lake, Victoria and 15th, Vancouver, BC

Once again, the amazing Public Dreams Society (http://publicdreams.org/) put on the most magical of summer evenings in Vancouver, the Illuminares Lantern Festival at Trout Lake in East Van.

Always a highlight of the year for us, and 2007 was no exception! We started off with a standing dance set in the early evening, and at the fall of dusk we began marching around the lake, pied-pipering throngs of lantern bearing people to fire shows and lantern installations. And of course, the parade marshal's cry of "OK, you're done, thanks guys" does not even begin to deter us from continuing to play, which we did for hours more until eventually the police came around and politely suggested that there might be neighbours wanting to sleep.

Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC

Commercial Drive was once again closed from Venables to First Avenue for an all-day street party! Fun for Free! From the lovely people at East Van Celebration Society (http://commercialdrivefestival.org)

It is always a pleasure playing in the middle of a street. Such a common event in Europe where some of us travel often, yet such a rarity in these here parts! Once again, we had crowds dancing to our old world party music of tarantellas, klezmer wedding tunes, french circle dances, polkas, waltzes, and irish foot-stompin tunes.

Trout Lake, Victoria and 15th, Vancouver, BC

Once again Lewis Carroll's work of genius came to life at the East end of Trout Lake, with dozens of actors and performers contributing to this fantastic event.
For the the third or fourth year running (we've lost count!), Toot-a-Lute has been the House band for this amazing little piece of local interactive theatre. The weather was fine, the crowds finer yet, and a grand old time was had by all, and much dancing ensued to round off the afternoon. See you here again next year!