Friday, December 05, 2025
30.0°F

Celtic Christmas returns to Moses Lake Dec. 12

JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 days, 23 hours AGO
by JOEL MARTIN
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | December 2, 2025 3:00 AM

MOSES LAKE — Fiddler Geoffrey Castle will bring his Celtic Christmas show to Moses Lake again Dec. 12. 


“This show is all about the magic of Christmas and a time that predates the commercialized Christmas of today,” Castle wrote on his website. “Be ready to be transported back to the Misty Isles.”


The show is part of the Christmas in Washington concert series, which brings Castle and several musical guests to seven cities around the state. Moses Lake has been one of them since 2012, according to Columbia Basin Herald archives. 


Castle describes himself as a pioneer of the six-string electric violin. He started out busking on the streets of New York City and Paris, according to his website, and to date has released 14 albums of Celtic, classical and other styles. One of those, “Geoffrey Castle’s Celtic Christmas — LIVE!,” is compiled from past Christmas shows and available at the concert. 


Singer Emily McIntosh will accompany Castle for the Moses Lake show. McIntosh has performed with legends like Mavis Staples, Al Green and Huey Lewis, according to her promotional material, and is also a prolific singer of radio advertising jingles. 


The Seattle Irish Dance Company will be there as well. SIDC has performed with musicians from around the world, including The Chieftains, The Celtic Tenors, Gaelic Storm, Doolin’, and Celtica Pipes Rock, according to their website, as well as numerous tours and music festivals.  


Proceeds from the concert series benefit local charities, according to the Christmas in Washington website. This year’s show will support “A Home for the Holidays,” which helps one family a year to secure their own home. 


Tickets are available at the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce Office, 301 W. Broadway, or at www.christmasinwashington.com.


“We’re inviting everyone to feel the joy and magic of the season – bringing families and communities closer together through the music,” Castle wrote in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald. 


Celtic Christmas 

7 p.m. Dec. 12 

Big Bend Community College 

Wallenstien Theater 

6989 College Parkway NE 

    The Seattle Irish Dance Company will perform Dec. 12 in Moses Lake as part of the Christmas in Washington concert series.
 
 


ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN

Moses Lake teachers march downtown
December 4, 2025 7:29 p.m.

Moses Lake teachers march downtown

MOSES LAKE — Teachers from across Moses Lake marched from Sinkiuse Square to Frontier Middle School Thursdayin support of the Moses Lake Education Association’s work stoppage. The teachers stayed at Frontier while a band played at Carl Ahlers Park across the street and passing motorists honked. The teachers had been on strike for four days while the union negotiates a new contract with the Moses Lake School District.

Mini-farm for sale has deep Grant County roots
December 5, 2025 1 a.m.

Mini-farm for sale has deep Grant County roots

SOAP LAKE — There’s a little piece of history in the mini-farm for sale east of Soap Lake. “It’s been with the same owner since the 1930s,” said Anna Van Diest of Moses Lake Realty Group, who is listing the 25.19-acre property at 20226 NE Adrian Road, just south of SR 28. The well, still in use, was dug in 1931, she added, more than two decades before the Columbia Basin Project brought irrigation water to the Basin. There’s not much left now of the town of Adrian, but if things had gone a little differently in 1910, the Grant County Courthouse might have been located where the farm now stands. When Grant County was formed out of the eastern part of Douglas County in 1909, the city of Ephrata, then just over 300 people, was named the county seat. The people of Adrian got up a petition the following year to grab the county seat away, according to the Washington history site historylink.org, but were defeated in a 945-802 vote. A few remnants of the town and the railroad cutoff nearby are still visible from the road or in aerial photos.

‘People connector’
December 4, 2025 2:10 a.m.

‘People connector’

Small business mentor Allan Peterson prepares to retire

MOSES LAKE — Allan Peterson is hanging it up after more than two decades of helping the little guy find success. “(We) really appreciate all that he has done for Grant County,” Grant County Economic Development Council Director Brant Mayo said. “He’s been an unsung hero of the growth in this area.”