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South West musician Rhys Crimmin will return to Warrnambool’s Lighthouse Theatre on Friday, March 20 as part of Melbourne Celtic Festival On Tour, just three days after St Patrick’s Day.
Crimmin will perform with his band Austral, a fully charged four-piece combining didgeridoo, Irish pipes, high-energy fiddling, journeying songs and energetic foot percussion.
Having performed in more than 20 countries and now living in Melbourne, Crimmin said he returned to the South West as often as he could and loved performing in the region.
“I always seem to be coming back either playing a solo show around the area or as a member of a few different bands. I was just playing with Maggie Carty at the Port Fairy Folk Festival which was great,” he said.
“Because I play a variety of instruments, it allows me to play with different acts as well.”
Crimmin said he developed a love of Celtic music while travelling and performing in Ireland and Scotland, before later attending Celtic music sessions in Melbourne.
“That’s when I met Angus, Caity and Connor from the band Austral who were looking for somebody to make Australian Celtic music with,” he said.
“They thought that with my style with their tunes, we could make something that was original and interesting. Australian with Celtic influences.”
And the combination worked.
Austral won Album of the Year for their release Thylacine at the 2022 Australian Folk Music Awards and followed that up with Group of the Year honours in 2024.
Joining Austral on the Melbourne Celtic Festival On Tour bill will be Apolline and Ghosts of Erin.
“Ghosts of Erin are a duo from Ireland with a guitar and whistles and they play classic Irish songs in a very authentic way,” Crimmin said.
“Apolline were the Youth Artists of the Year in 2024. They play their own original compositions with Celtic influence with a fiddle, a double bass and a cello.
“It’s a showcase of the great Celtic music that we have here in Australia and you’ll hear some original music as well as some classic Celtic hits.
“It’s a great mixture of the old and the new.”
Tickets are available at the Lighthouse Theatre box office or at www.lighthousetheatre.com.au.