Traditional music strikes a chord with tourism businesses in Dumfries and Galloway

Deputy Minister for Sport and Culture Allan Wilson today lent his support to More Music Live, one of three projects jointly funded by visitscotland and the Scottish Arts Council under their Traditional Music and Tourism Initiative.

More Music Live is run by Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association, in partnership with Dumfries and Galloway Tourist Board. The project aims to offer visitors to Dumfries and Galloway the sounds of traditional music during the autumn, enhancing their experience of the area, their enjoyment of traditional music and encouraging a return visit. Over a three month period, regular performances of traditional music will take place in pubs, hotels and at some visitor attractions throughout the region.

Allan Wilson, Deputy Minister for Sport and Culture said: "Traditional music and tourism is a winning combination. This initiative will ensure that more visitors to Scotland will be able to experience our rich musical and cultural heritage in live, entertaining and exciting ways."

Speaking at the launch event today in Ecclefechan, Tessa Jackson, Director of the Scottish Arts Council said: "Presenting traditional music in a wider range of venues helps create new audiences for this unique and vibrant part of Scotland’s culture. It also provides the visitor with yet another aspect of Scotland to enjoy. We recognise the value of cultural tourism and the benefits it can bring to visitors, local people, small businesses and to artists."

visitscotland Deputy Chairman Mike Cantlay said: "It is very encouraging to see the commitment of local businesses and musicians to this project. This has been an especially tough year for Dumfries and Galloway and we hope that initiatives like this will provide proof of the benefits of musicians and tourism businesses working together."

The Initiative has also commissioned a handbook for hoteliers and other tourism businesses with all the advice they need on putting on traditional music events.

Later in the year there will be a series of seminars around Scotland based on an evaluation of previous projects, which will help tourist businesses and traditional musicians to collaborate more effectively in the future.

The other projects receiving funding in 2001 are:

Rolling in the Isles 2001, Orkney Tourist Board
In partnership with Orkney Enterprise and local tourism businesses this year’s project builds on the success of ‘Rolling in the Isles 2000’, which included around 100 traditional music sessions in 10 venues throughout the Isles during summer 2000. This signified a 90% increase in the public performance of traditional music over this period, and brought significant increases in trade for the host venues on the session evening, and high levels of visitor satisfaction. Two key developments in 2001 were a programme of young musicians’ workshops and weekly ceilidhs.
Summer Sessions, Isle of Arran Folk Festival Society
In partnership with hoteliers and publicans throughout Arran the project provided a programme of performances to ensure that visitors to the island were able to enjoy a traditional music/dance event five days of each week during the summer. The performances included acoustic sessions, amplified pub gigs, informal ‘roadshows’ and larger scale concerts/ceilidhs.

Notes to editors

1. The Traditional Music and Tourism Initiative was set up to explore and capitalise on the potential of genuine Scottish traditional music as a tourist attraction. It is a collaboration between VisitScotland and the Scottish Arts Council and is now in its third year.
   A series of small-scale local projects between music promoters and Area Tourist Boards have been organised and the results evaluated and documented. One – a project which provided free music sessions on ferries over to Shetland to attract visitors to a series of evening events on the islands – won a Scottish Thistle tourism award in 2000.
2. The following projects were amongst those funded in the first two years of the initiative:
   Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and Trossachs Tourist Board - to promote a series of traditional music events for visitors in the town of Callander
   Angus Council Cultural Services - for a series of ""open mic sessions"" in local hotels and pubs.
   Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association - to help establish new opportunities in the region for visitors to hear and enjoy traditional music.
   Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board - towards the cost of promoting traditional music to be played outside Tourist Information Centres.
   Kingdom of Fife Tourist Board - to build on the success of the 1999 Traditional Arts Showcase evenings. Orkney Tourist Board - towards the cost of helping visitors to the Orkney Isles to access, understand and participate in traditional music.
   Western Isles Tourist Board - to help promote traditional music nights on the islands of North and South Uist and Benbecula.
   Scottish Borders Tourist Board - to help in creating a stimulating music programme which will raise the profile of music from the Borders.
   Shetland Islands Tourism - for ""Soonds Lik Shetland"", a project to film and record up to 12 Shetland bands for promotional purposes.
3. As well as direct funding for traditional music events, the initiative also includes:
   
   Funding the production of regular listings of traditional music events across Scotland. Listings have been compiled for distribution to all Tourist Information Centres so that they can give accurate responses to those enquiring after traditional music as one of the attractions of the locality.
   
   Enabling the Traditional Music and Song Association (TMSA) to run a training module on basic traditional music awareness for Tourist Information Centre staff.
   
   Running a seminar in Inverness (November ’99) on the work of the first year’s projects which was attended by representatives of both the tourism and music sectors.
   
   Producing a final report of the pilot projects and Inverness seminar, drawing a number of conclusions and simple recommendations which will inform future activities of the joint initiative as well as be of use to the sector.
   
   Commissioning a specialist traditional music consultant with marketing and tourism experience to give support and advice to the first year’s project organisers and ensure effective evaluation. The consultant will also write a final report summarising the pilot projects and providing recommendations for future work.
   
   Commissioning a new handbook which will give advice and guidance for new promoters from the tourist sector on ‘how to promote traditional music’.
   
   Running a series of seminars later in autumn 2001 which will aim to encourage, inform and advise those active in tourism and traditional music about positive future collaboration.

Contact email(s)

media.office@scottisharts.org.uk

Issued by: Scottish Arts Council