A wide array of Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, Appalachian and other Celtic-inspired music and dance is on tap during the Boston Celtic Music Fest (BCMFest). Boston, Massachusetts’ annual grassroots, musician-run, winter Celtic music festival takes place Jan. 7-8, 2011.

Now in its eighth year, the festival will explore and affirm the interrelationship between the song and instrumental traditions in Celtic music – affording musicians an opportunity to explore the richness of traditional songs and ballads and singers to gain a better appreciation for jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas, marches, strathspeys and airs.

More than 100 performers, a mix of established artists and new or emerging acts from the Boston area’s Celtic music community – including fiddlers, flutists, accordionists, guitarists, singers and other musicians, as well as dancers — will be featured during the festival. Their styles and approach run the gamut from dyed-in-the-wool traditional to more contemporary-minded sounds.

BCMFest kicks off with a customary Friday night concert at Club Passim in Harvard Square, Cambridge (featuring Plaiditude, Susie Petrov & Reinmar Seidler and Long Time Courting) and the ever-popular Boston Urban Ceilidh – a Celtic dance party –at the Canadian-American Club, a few miles west, in Watertown (with music provided by Kimberly Fraser & Hanneke Cassel, Laura Cortese and the Boston Urban Ceilidh Band, and Pelham Norville, Adam Cole-Mullen, Bethany Waickman & Dan Gurney).

The festival continues on Saturday with a day-long series of performances at Club Passim and on three different stages at the nearby First Parish of Cambridge. In addition to featured artists, there will be a showcase of Celtic-style rock power ballads, an open stage and opportunities for all to sing along during “Lift Every Voice.” Halali (featuring fiddlers Cortese, Cassel and Lissa Schneckenburger, as well as guitarist Flynn Cohen – all of whom have branched out on their own and achieved some solo success) will reunite and close out the festival on Saturday night, along with a number of guest musicians and dancers. The three fiddlers met as teenagers while attending Alasdair Fraser’s School for Scottish fiddlers in California.

Hanneke Cassel

“Boston is a unique place for folk and traditional music, and we’ve benefited immensely from being here,” says Cassel, a native of Oregon. “The people we’ve met, the sessions we’ve played, the opportunities we’ve had for musical and personal growth during our time in Boston – it’s all been tremendous,” she notes. “This concert, in a way, will be a ‘thank you’ to the Boston area and everyone who has influenced and inspired us while we’ve been here.”

Tickets for the BCMFest finale concert are $15; $13 for Club Passim members, while combo passes for the festival “DayFest” and the finale concert ($25 and $23) also are available. For more information on the festival, visit www.bcmfest.com.