Cèilidh Trails
Blas Festival 2008
Cèilidh Trails
| Cèilidh Trails is a project organised by Fèisean nan Gàidheal, an organisation that receives Foundation Funding from the Scottish Arts Council |
The Blas Festival celebrates the culture of the Scottish Highlands through music and language. Devised by The Highland Council in partnership with Fèisean nan Gàidheal and the Promoters Arts Network, Blas is now in its fourth year. This year’s festival will run from the 5 to13 September 2008.
Blas presents a number of important attractions throughout the 2008 programme, which bolster the festival’s commitment to Gaelic and the links with Cape Breton. One of the returning Blas favourites is the fèisean Cèilidh Trailers.
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The various fèisean Cèilidh Trailers consist of bright young musicians and singers from all over the Highlands bringing their fresh talent to their own specific areas. Many of the musicians featured in the Cèilidh Trail teams have attended their local fèis for many years. As well as their own regular summer tour, the Cèilidh Trailers also perform annually at the Blas Festival. |
There are six different Cèilidh trails taking part in this year’s festival. One of the six, the Caledonian Canal Cèilidh Trail, is run by the Highland Council. The other five Cèilidh Trails fall within the remit of Fèisean nan Gàidheal, the organisation which supports the development of community-based Gaelic arts tuition festivals throughout Scotland:
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Cèilidh Trail projects often begin at the beginning of July with ten days of intense training during which the young performers work with top musicians from the traditional music world to develop their musical and performance skills.
After this intensive training period there is usually a three-week tour of each area which consists of a mixture of formal concerts, sessions and dances in a variety of venues – village halls, community centres, inns, boats and even ‘big sheds’! |
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These projects give the musicians a real taste of what it is like to be a professional traditional musician today; the versatility in gigs, the constant travelling, setting up an area for concerts and presenting material to your audience. |
This project gives the performers the opportunity to visit some beautiful places they wouldn’t normally get to and in turn these areas are getting the chance to access high quality, affordable traditional music and who knows, in the future participate in a Tune Up Tours!
| Visit the Blas website for further details and to download the programme. | |