Tradition key as Broad Cove concert marks 70 years

June 25, 2026

To say the Broad Cove Scottish Concert is generational would be an understatement, whether you’re talking about its audience or the people who stage the annual event.

As the concert prepares to celebrate its 70th anniversary on Sunday, July 26, 2026, you can be sure that many of the people who attended in the concert’s early years will be there once again, but this time with their grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

One exemplary family is the MacIsaacs of nearby Dunvegan. Francis MacIsaac continues to serve as groundskeeper for the concert, held annually on the grounds of St. Margaret’s Church in Broad Cove Chapel. He also oversees admission to the concert. His wife, Lois, still volunteers with the event, although she responds with “retired” when asked what official role she plays.

Lois served for many years as co-chair of the concert, which this year features Cape Breton-born and Grammy-award winning entertainer Gordie Sampson, and was also involved with the talent committee. She says it was actually her husband’s father, one of the original organizers, who first got her involved in the late 80s when she attended her first organizational meeting to take notes.

But her initiation to the Broad Cove Scottish Concert came many years earlier, despite growing up in Montreal.

“My grandmother lived in Broad Cove, so I would come for a couple of weeks in the summer,” she recalls. “Everybody always had a job. My aunts would volunteer me, like so many others in the community, to do a shift in the canteen. I was probably in my early teens at that point.”

She says the secret to the concert’s longevity is simple.

“I think the organizers try very hard to produce a concert of substance—always good talent, always something new,” Lois says. “They maintain a good quality concert. I think they’ve always had an ear for what the concert goers are looking for.”

“It’s the community,” she adds. “It’s tradition. People come to that concert who might not go to another concert of that sort in the whole year. They come as children, then they come as parents and then as grandparents.”

Lois says there’s hardly any Cape Breton talent who’ve graduated to the world stage who hasn’t been on the stage at Broad Cove or got their start there.

“We had Gordie Sampson when he was really young and he was a hit then, and one of the nicest personalities,” she remembers. “We have evolved a little from the totally traditional concert that we did have and that’s to accommodate our audience.”

“We still draw a really good crowd. We draw a knowledgeable crowd. People that come, they know their Cape Breton and Celtic talent.”

Despite the concert’s gradual evolution, Lois says tradition has been the key to the event’s success.

“We don’t change things up very much,” she says. “It all seems to be working, and we’re grateful for that. People put in a lot of time, and they take great pride in what they’re doing.”

The concert serves as the main fundraiser for the parish, but the event has grown over the years to include the involvement of the entire community.

It’s that community commitment to the concert that helps to explain how Lois’ daughter, Lindsay MacIsaac Ryan, has become current co-chair, a position she shares with Daniel MacLeod. With so many people working the concert, Lois says there wasn’t a babysitter to be found, so she brought Lindsay along with her.

For her part, Lindsay laughs when asked about her earliest memories of the concert.

“I grew up in the house that my dad grew up in, so our house was sort of like the hub in the summer,” Lindsay says. “Everyone came home for the concert, and I just remember the hustle and the bustle in the week leading up to the concert.”

“My mom was on the talent committee for years and years,” she adds. “My dad is still the head of the groundskeeping and getting the property ready for the concert and keeping all the buildings in good order.”

“I just remember the fridge being full of food, my mom cleaning the house. At that time, they had ham sandwiches and tea they’d sell at the canteen, and there’d be the warnings not to touch anything in the fridge and be on our best behaviour because our parents were so busy.”

Lindsay says she cherishes the memories of attending the concert as child.

“As a young kid, it was that freedom of being on the concert grounds and seeing so many family members and being able to run around in a really safe place with the whole concert and the music as a backdrop,” she recalls.

Lindsay says the concert has maintained its popularity because organizers have tried to make as few changes as possible.

“The format is basically the same,” she says. “Rarely has the price at the gate increased. People know what to expect and it feels like you’re coming home a little bit. One of our priorities is to have the best talent that we can have—and local talent—but also make it affordable for families. That’s really important to us. That goes from prices at the gate to the canteen.”

She says the audiences haven’t changed much either over the years, while conceding that the concert’s headliners do bring in new people.

“The headliner is kind of the finale of the concert, so it’s very important,” she says. “But so is the rest of the concert. They have to work together. The crowd that we have at three o’clock at the beginning isn’t always the same as the crowd we have at seven o’clock when the headliner’s going on. It’s a very thoughtful process, and the talent committee considers every detail and every person that goes on that stage.”

Seventy years in, Lindsay says it’s tradition that keeps audiences coming back.

“It’s just a tradition in people’s lives, and not just people from Broad Cove, but people from Cape Breton, and people from the mainland who are Celtic music lovers.”