Celtic Fair in park tomorrow
Organizers hope to raise $5,000 for library

Constitution Park will come alive tomorrow with the toetapping sounds of Celtic music and the high-stepping footwork of Irish dancers during the ninth annual Celtic Fair.

Sponsored by the Camarillo Kiwanis Club, the fair is free to the public and is expected to draw more than 5,000 visitors to the park that neighbors City Hall. Fair organizers hope to raise nearly $5,000 to buy children's books for the Camarillo Library

The daylong event begins at 10 a.m. and will include a variety of Irish musicians, featuring award-winning bagpipe and drum bands the Gold Coast Pipe Band and the Pacific Coast Highlanders.

Students from the Greenway Academy Irish Dancing Group and the Claddagh Dance Academy will perform their intricately choreographed dances and quick footwork, as dancers from the MacKinnon Dance Academy will bring a bit of Scottish flair to the day's entertainment with their routines.

For the first time in fair history, members of the Society for Creative Anachronism's local chapter will present medieval sword fighting while dressed in period clothing.

The park will be ringed with food and game booths, as well as vendors selling Celtic wares.

Although not a Kiwanis member, Jim Jacobs, the event's lead organizer since its inception in 1999, said he partnered with the service organization to raise money to purchase children's books for the new Camarillo Library.

Originally sponsored by the Breakfast Rotary Club of Camarillo, Jacobs said Rotary chose not to sponsor this year's Celtic Fair in order to focus more attention on the club's long list of annual events.

Jacobs said the idea for the fair was born out of his desire to stage an event in Camarillo to feature Irish dance troupes from throughout the county. Jacobs, whose two daughters competed in Irish dance and have performed at the past Celtic Fairs, partnered with Camarillo City Council member Mike Morgan and longtime city employee John Fraser in the late 1990s to host the daylong event.

Jacobs said the fair has raised about $10,000 for local charities since it began nine years ago.

- Daniel Wolowicz