Festival ending on different note

STERLING — The Sterling Renaissance Festival opens the weekend of July 4 and 5 this year, but will rock on an extra weekend with a music festival.

The Sterling Celtic Rock Festival, featuring live music and dance, food and crafts, will be held Aug. 22 and 23, the weekend directly following the seven-week run of the Sterling Renaissance Festival.

A number of improvements to the festival grounds and facilities will also debut this year. Slapstick antics from the "Warwickshire Builders Guild," experimenting scientists, pirates digging for treasure and constables jailing visitors are some of the scheduled acts that will be seen in open spaces and pathways between stage acts.

The festival's acting company, the Blessed the Mark Players, is cast through national auditions, with approximately 2,000 actors seeking the troupe's 50 spots each year, according to a release from Empire Attractions, which operates the Sterling festival and a handful of other theme parks around the state.

Empire noted several improvements at the Sterling facility, including covered stage seating, benches at the jousting area, improved parking, shaded seating areas with additional picnic tables and a covered beer garden.

The featured band for the Celtic rock festival is Enter the Haggis, which plays a mixture of blues, funk and rock. Other acts include Searson, Cara, the Glengarry Bhoys, Barleyjuice and Rathkeltair. All of these main bands will perform across three main stages.

Traditional Scottish and Irish dance troupes and local acoustic musicians will perform on secondary stages.

The festival, which is gearing up for its 33rd year, is in the town of Sterling, Cayuga County — about a 15-minute drive from Oswego. It mimics life during the Renaissance in 1585 in the English village of Warwick.

There is a different theme each week at the festival, including a "children's romp" July 4 and 5 and a "Wine Lovers' Bacchanal" Aug. 15 and 16.

For more information, contact the festival at 1 (800) 879-4446 or go to its Web site, www.sterlingfestival.com.