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Email Page| HI-Arts | > | Features | > | 2005 | > | August | > | Highland 2007 | > | Arthur Cormack |
ARTHUR CORMACK
| Well, in short, Féisean nan Gaidheal would like to see any major celebration of Highland culture having Gaelic at its centre, and we would also like to see a celebration of our work over 25 years, involving traditional music being performed by young people throughout the Highlands, and giving them the opportunity to work with national and international performers. |
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While I don't want to turn this into a selling job for the Blas festival which Féisean nan Gaidheal has developed in partnership with the Highland Council and PAN, it does have the potential to deliver so much of what Highland 2007 states it is about. Highland 2007 has six key strands – Arts, Heritage, Language, Sport, Environment and Science. Blas can help deliver on 4 out of the 6. |
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| 3. Language: Every single event will feature Gaelic, and all publicity materials and the website will be fully bilingual. We are looking at innovative ways of introducing every single member of the audience to Gaelic in a way which is not ‘heavy’ or ‘in your face’. We want to have fun with it. This will be one way to deliver on the ‘centrality of Gaelic’ to Highland 2007 4. Environment: Again Gaelic song reflects many aspects of the environment in which we live, and An Tobar will feature visuals which reflect the natural environment also. |
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| Highland 2007 is focussing on seven major themes - Youth, Gaelic, Creativity, Highland Homecoming, Access and Inclusiveness, Re-interpretation of Traditional Icons and The Highlands as an Inspirational Place. Blas can deliver on all of these themes to varying degrees. 1. Youth: Highland youth will be amply represented in Blas, with young people from the Féisean, Gizzenbriggs, Sgoil Chiùil na Gaidhealtachd, individuals like Graham Mackenzie, Jenna Cumming, the North Highland Fiddlers, etc. Blas will make a virtue of the involvement of young people being on exactly the same basis as some of the better known, and international, acts to be featured. |
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| 2. Gaelic: As above, every single event will feature Gaelic. All publicity and press releases up until now, and beyond will be bilingual, and no-one will come to a Blas event without experiencing Gaelic language, and that won’t just be sung! 3. Creativity: Blas could be a major celebration of Highland creativity, and with the right level of funding, much more could be done to encourage creativity. This is certainly our aspiration for the 2007 festival in particular, but we are making some headway with specially commissioned concerts, like An Tobar this year. |
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| 4. Highland Homecoming: We certainly hope that people, through time, will travel home to the Highlands for Blas. We certainly can’t promise that will happen this year, but what I can say is that with people like Cathy Ann MacPhee coming ‘home’ from Canada for the event, and others like Katy Mackenzie and all the Cèilidh Trailers coming home from the south for the event, there is some degree of ‘homecoming’. I suspect this aim is more to do with international audiences, however, and it is our aim to build such an audience, but that will take time, and investment. Significantly though, the first tickets sold through The Booth for Blas, were sold to a couple from South Carolina! 5. Access and Inclusiveness: I believe Blas will offer a high degree of access to our indigenous Highland language and culture, and that we have been completely inclusive in our approach to programming, by involving Féisean, PAN members - and indeed any other promoter who wanted to be involved - and by involving young and old, local and international artists. All the Highland schools will be involved through our Gaelic Music Week to coincide with Blas. |
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| 6. Re-interpretation of Traditional Icons: Not sure what H2007 would consider ‘traditional icons’ to be, but in Blas, there will certainly be plenty of re-interpretation of traditional Highland culture, and one ‘icon’ is the Gaelic language. Another is traditional music. 7. The Highlands as an Inspirational Place: What is more inspirational than our indigenous music and language, when professionally presented, or played and sung by our young people? What is more inspirational than the Féis movement, as one example of that, with another being communities working together, as they will be in Blas? |
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| There was a survey carried out by NFO/System 3 for The Herald in January 2004 which showed that people in Scotland would rather that traditional music was supported from the public purse, by a far bigger percentage than the other forms of music put together! It showed that nationally 31% of people in Scotland felt that traditional music should be publicly funded, compared to only 4% for classical music and 2% for opera. Significantly, 35% of those supporting traditional music were between 18 and 34, with a further 31% aged 35-54. Those supporting opera were mostly in the 55+ age group. In the Highlands & Islands, support for traditional music rose to 57%, with 4% for classical, and 3% for opera. The people of the Highlands are ready for, and want, a Blas festival, or something of this nature. |
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| There is not another single event that I am aware of, being promoted currently by Highland 2007, which has the potential to deliver as much for Highland 2007 as Blas does. Our work in the schools, and our longer standing work through the Féisean, has the potential to help deliver the cultural pledge, and if we can build up Blas as a successful event, then we most certainly can have a festival which becomes international, both in terms of who is on the stage, but also in terms of who attends it, and which can be up there with the likes of Celtic Colours and the Hebridean Celtic Festival. Director, Fèisean nan Gaidheal |
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NORTHINGS
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