Edinbane (Skye) Community Music Festival Website

Well that was the 4th Edinbane Festival. Bigger and grander and with some fabulous bands, a great atmosphere and much good craic. Sorry to anyone who got turned away on Saturday night but we just couldn't let any more people in safely. Stage One was a big success with some fantastic acts and some names we will see again on posters and bigger stages.

I think we all should show our appreciation for the huge amount of hard work, time and effort that made it all possible. There is so much to mention that I am bound to forget many people and things and I apologize in advance. If you helped then many thanks from all the people who came and enjoyed the festival.

First and foremost for the people that made it happen and carried it through thick and thin - Alistair, Mary, Ian and Rosie - months of preparation work and running about on the days keeping it all afloat. Roddy for lugging booze and chairs, Davie and Gus for leccy, Frances for a cool head with money, Moira for holding the bar together both nights, everyone on the door - Eddie, Eric, Andy Watson, Brenda, Marie McPhee....  and at the bar - Debbie, Neil, Chris McSorley, Tracy, Wendy, Tank, Robin, Malie..... Richard and Jean and family for catering with hungry people. Neil and all the helpers for marquees. Rikki as always for this and that. Calum for the coconut shy. Liz for the crazy hairgoos. Karen and Helen for face painting and storytelling. Natasha, Rachael, Mouse and Megan for the pony rides. Adam for loading sound gear as well as playing great fiddle. James and DD for being James and DD. All the stewards - David McP, Roddy and Peggy ........ Lance and Marsan for parade workshops. All the bands. The sound engineers. All the cleaner-uppers. Yochan for CD sales. Our blond questionarettes. Liz Carlisle for helping and singing. Hector for hectoring - I mean comparing - and all who performed on Stage 1. Chris Tyler for the fire show. 

All all the people of Edinbane (with a very few notable exceptions) who supported the festival.

Bob

and....

Jonathan ,Steven; stewards, Rose & Stewart Quinn for bringing up the plates & glasses, John & Christeen Maciver, Mari MacSorly first aid, Robin Le Mar in the bar with Stewart Martin. Layton Jones, Kevin at the door, Mike Dunworth for pulling cars out of ditches. James and Euan from the bus, Ross and Paul, David McPhee, Bridget........

The Battlefield Band  (first band Friday night)
Named after the Glasgow suburb of Battlefield, where the group was formed, Battlefield Band have been on the world''s roads for just on 30 years now, distilling their own unique form of the Scottish spirit. They have broken down barriers and pioneered many new directions which others have followed. Angry, joyful, raucous, contemplative, their music is most importantly - accessible to all.


Macumba (Saturday)
MacUmba are a group of eight musicians based in Scotland who mix the traditional sounds of Scottish bagpipes with the sounds and rhythms of Brazilian and Caribbean percussion. A kind of salsa pipe band with brilliant harmonies on the pipes and funky rhythms. They went down a storm at the opening match of the world cup in France not surprisingly when Scotland played Brazil.

The PeatBog Faeries (Saturday)
World renowned dance beat with bagpipes super group - The Faeries are back with their new cd set direct from Dunvegas! This is very likely to be their only appearance this year on Skye, their home ground. Edinbane is their favourite festival on Skye and probrably their favourite venue in the world!

The Incredible Fling Band (Friday after Battlefield Band)
Fantastic local ceilidh band. They've been around for longer than anyone can remember but still haven't slowed down or lost their energy. THE band to get if you want great music and a great dance.

The Bigfield Blues Band (Saturday)
Our first big band including a horn section. Lochalsh's answer to the Commitments.

The Injuns (Saturday)
Local band of fine mult-instrumentalists with a variety of original and cover material

Cliff Hewett and Friends (Sunday afternoon)
Boogie Woogie Piano Cliff and some more excellent musicians from Lochalsh will lead the free Sunday afternoon festival wind down session in The Edinbane Hotel. A chance to join in and meet the local locos.

Other Events include (mostly Saturday daytime)
- The new young musicians tent, devoted to showcasing the area’s growing talent
- ”Crazee hat” parade lead by pipers and followed by a boogie-woogie piano pulled by a tractor
- Late night Fire Show and closing parade with pipers
- Storytelling, pot throwing and much much more.......

PRESS RELEASE EDINBANE FESTIVAL 2004 – SKYES THE LIMIT

Schools out for summer; July 2nd and 3rd is festival time in Edinbane. There is plenty variety; old favourites, new faces, giant puppets, hair sculptures, the festival parade on Saturday afternoon and the opening of Stage 1, the latest festival development. There is an exchange visit from Sweden and a young Harvard student of folklore joins us on work experience. Sessions in the pub and a wind down on Sunday, “Forget about your cares and your mobile phone and come along young and old for the best of good times”.

It’s a long time since The Battlefield Band parked their van on the shores of Loch Greshornish . Two decades on they’re back and will be opening the festival with a concert on Friday night. Under the banner “Forward with Scotland’s past” the band mix the old and new, fiddles and bouzouki with bagpipes and synthesisers. If you’ve not heard them before you’re in for a treat and if you have you know they wont let you down. The Incredible Fling Band will follow with a ceilidh dance. Last here years ago at the first festival, organisers just had to ask them back to help us dance the night away.

Friday night brings a new experience, “Spritter”, all the way from the region of East Sweden. They provide an eclectic mix of Scandinavian folk music, clarinet, double bass, guitar and fiddle complete with dancers. This is one of two new collaborations for this year’s festival. Rosie Somerville said, “This visit came about as a result of Farquhar MacDonald’s current tour with them in Sweden. They are sponsored by their region because of their commitment to getting traditional music back on to the Swedish circuit. They are coming to Edinbane to observe the festival and we have been invited to Sweden in October”. Make sure you are early, Spritter kick off at 6.30pm on Stage 1. marquee outside the Marshall Centre.

Stage 1/Àrd Ùrla 3.00 –7.00 pm on Saturday is the major development and collaboration with An Drochaid. Born out of a desire to encourage and develop local young people’s musical talents this years festival launches Stage 1/ Àrd Ùrla in the Marquee, a show devoted to the up and coming musicians and performers from the area.

Chris and Dave Patfield, the acclaimed Skye jugglers will demonstrate their skills when the doors open on Saturday night setting a playful link to the opening act; The Bigfield Blues Band. With up to fourteen members they must have the hottest horn section in the Highlands. According to Ian Brown after seeing them at the Applecross festival last weekend, “ their unusual presence is a winner with music from Bessie Smith, Nina Simone, Motown, best of the sixties and some very sexy Gaelic soul”. This will start the moving and dancing and then, complete with light show, video jockey and rhythms of the Caribbean and Brazil; “Macumba”, Scottish bagpipes, salsa drums and dancers, this combo will take the floor, change the tempo and keep it building up and up!

And if this isn’t enough “Injuns”, Leighton Jones, Hector MacInnes, David Simmons, all full of promise, will be joined on stage by sax player Drew Petrie, provoking comparisons, sore feet and a brilliant intro to the Peat Bog Faeries who will honour the festival with yet another appearance by popular demand. Continues…..2 The food tent outside the Marshall Centre promises good slow food and this year is getting in the districts mobile kitchen to help make this a slick and cool operation. Most festival activity will be centred around the Edinbane Hotel and The Marshall centre, and the Pottery with lots of attractions for all ages. Parking will be on the edge of the village near the shop. The festival committee are grateful to this year’s festival sponsors and local supporters.

Main sponsors in 2004 were;

Event Scotland
Leader +
MacEwans Sessions
Scottish Arts Council
Skye & Lochalsh Enterprise
Highland Festival
An Drochaid