PICKENS — Hagood Mill will host the Ed Harrison Memorial Celtic Christmas event next weekend, featuring the Wolf Moon String Band, the local Irish group Lissakeole and Santa Claus.

The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 19. Parking will be $5 for the day but admission to Hagood Mill and the Hagood Creek Petroglyph Site will be free. Lucy Allen and Marshall Goers are the event’s co-hosts.

Santa Claus will be available for photos from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Music will begin at noon.

The event is a continuation of an event that was started when Hagood Mill approached well-known local Uilleann Pipe player Ed Harrison to host a Celtic Christmas show in December.

Harrison was an accomplished Dobro player and clawhammer banjo player, played Cajun accordion and the Uilleann pipes. His warmth, good humor, and ready laugh were a comfort to his family and many friends in the area. Sadly, after over 20 years of battling cancer, he died in 2012. The annual event was named in his honor.

The Wolf Moon String Band is composed a group of old friends who have played music together in various bands and settings going back 15 years. The band was formed in 2009 to perform a contra dance at Furman University. The name of the band was suggested by local dance caller, Jennie Wakefield, as the event was held on the Wolf Moon, the first full moon of the year.

Band members include Marshall Goers on fiddle and mandolin, Briggs Hamilton on bass and banjo uke, Lucy Allen on guitar and vocals, and Brooke Lauer on banjo and fiddle.

Allen and Goers, who have been regulars at the Celtic Christmas show since 2008, are an acoustic duo whose passion for roots music combines elements of various musical genres. Allen and Goers have performed solo or with other groups, but their best work happens when they’re together in a duet performance.

For the past 11 years, Goers and Allen have shared the stage, and continue to create memorable musical performances. They have made two recordings together, Just Passing Through and Won’t See Tadpoles Covered in Fur, an album dedicated to kids of all ages.

Lissakeole in Gaelic means “fort of music,” referencing the Irish fairy forts, which legend says are the entrances to the fairy world and the places where the fairies themselves hold their revelries. It is said that on certain evenings you can see the lights and hear the fairy music playing late into the wee hours as they dance and drink.

This band consists of Gabrielle Ward (lead vocalist, bodhran and tin whistle), Kaplan Ward (vocalist, guitar and bouzouki), Cody Wagar (tenor vocalist, guitar), Jennifer Vittoe (bass, backup vocalist), and Daniel Hendrix (uilleann pipes, tin whistle, low whistle). Lissakeole plays and sings many popular Irish tunes and songs, but puts their own stamp on them.

Also on Dec. 19, there will be blacksmithing, bowl-digging, flint knapping, chair-caning, moonshining, broom-making, basket-making, pottery, quilting, spinning, knitting, weaving, woodcarving, metal-smithing, bee keeping, leather-working and more.

The water-powered 1845 gristmill will be running throughout the day and fresh stone-ground corn meal, grits and wheat flour will be available. Basmati rice flour, oat flour, oatmeal, popping corn meal, and grits, organic yellow corn meal and grits, and buckwheat flour are produced and may be available.

The historic site is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday throughout the year and the mill operates, rain or shine, for a special festival the third Saturday of every month.

Hagood Mill is located three miles north of Pickens off U.S. 178 at 138 Hagood Mill Road. Call 864-898-2936 or visit www.visitpickenscounty.com/calendar for more information.

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Staff Report