First festival creates a Platform for the future
Performances and exhibitions in arts scene showcase
Perthshire’s newest festival of creativity has been praised by enthusiastic organisers.
The inaugural Platform drew to a close over the weekend after a string of performances and art exhibitions across Perth and Kinross.
Organised by Perthshire Creates, it was held to provide a springboard to open up the area’s contemporary art scene to wider audiences, and showcase established and emerging creative talent across the region.
The festival included a number of workshops, exhibitions from Perthshire Open Studios, live performances and artist’s talks.
One of Platform’s organisers, Caron Ironside, praised the level of talent on show and the audience members – whom she said engaged with the creativity on offer during the week.
She declared: “It has been great, it is really absolutely amazing.
“There has been a lovely response, people have been intrigued by it and there are great numbers coming through the exhibitions.
“The public profile this created for Perthshire Open Studios has given the artists a really nice boost to their anniversary year.”
Some of the festival’s highlights from the past week included live poetry around a campfire at Corbenic near Dunkeld, a jewellery-making workshop at St John’s Library, and live music from popular folk band Mad Ferret.
Caron said one of the most popular events was a sold-out live performance of BBC Radio 4 drama The Lamp at Breadalbane Library in Aberfeldy.
Platform was designed to provide a boost to new talent, something which Caron hopes will be one of the main legacies of the festival.
She continued:“We certainly made steps, but there is an Live poetry at Corbenic, near Dunkeld awful lot more to showcase. We certainly were able to include emerging talent in the programme and we have given artists a lot more opportunity within their own area.’’
When Perthshire Creates first established the programme of events for Platform, members hoped this would be the first of many annual Platform festivals in the region.
And Caron says after such a successful week of creativity, this dream can now become a reality.
She said: “It will be really interesting to see how Platform develops. There will be changes as new and more people get involved, but the seed has been sown which is really important for contemporary creatives in Perthshire to get fantastic coverage.
“It really has enabled people to see a contemporary side to Perthshire.”