Rebecca Baumbach performs Celtic jigs, reels, barn dances and other songs with Skip Cleavinger, John Skelton and Pat Broaders, as well as poetry readings by Marie Eaton, during the Sumer Solstice celebration at the Capitol Arts Center in downtown Bowling Green, Ky., on June 21, 2022. (Grace Ramey/photo@bgdailynews.com)

A celebration of the longest day of the year is returning to The Capitol next month.

Summer Solstice: A Celebration with Celtic Music and Poetry, hosted by the Warren County Public Library, will feature musicians Rebecca Baumbach, Skip Cleavinger, John Skelton and Pat Broaders at 7 p.m. June 20. 

Baumbach and Cleavinger are the organizers of the event, which is in its third year. 

“My husband and I always wanted to celebrate the solstice,” Baumbach said. “We began offering the winter solstice celebratory event, which is inclusive of the astronomical event marking the shortest day of the year, and the summer celebration is a branch off of that.”  

Baumbach, who plays the fiddle, and Cleavinger, who plays the Irish pipes and tin whistle, will be joined by Jon Skelton, who lives in Kentucky and is originally from England, on the flute, tin whistle and Spanish and French bagpipes, and vocalist Pat Broaders from Chicago, originally from Dublin, Ireland, who also plays the bouzouki.

“Both Jon and Pat are very well-known for playing traditional Irish music,” Cleavinger said. 

He said they will all perform music from Scotland, Ireland, the Brittany area of France (known as Breton music), and Galicia, the Celtic region of Spain.

“The music is very celebratory,” Cleavinger said. “It’s very happy music and a lot of songs echo the winter solstice concert in that respect.” 

Winter solstice concerts often include poetry readings, but for the summer solstice celebration, “Pat’s singing is the poetry.” 

“We just love these programs,” Cleavinger said. “Particularly the winter solstice program. People have it on their schedule and come every year.” 

Free tickets can be reserved at warrenpl.org on its event calendar.

Baumbach said in the past, they have relied on private funding for the concert, but this year, the concert will be fully funded by the Warren County Public Library, “which is why the tickets are free.” 

“The library has always been so generous,” Cleavinger said. “I remember during COVID, we didn’t think we could have the event, but the library stepped up and did a video for us that year and it was great.” 

Cleavinger said at the conclusion of the summer solstice celebration, the musicians and audience will exit the theater and head to the fountain at Fountain Square Park, as they have done in past solstice celebrations. 

“We will teach audience members how to do a really cool Breton dance,” he said.