Highland youngsters set to have a Blas this summer

The Highland capital will ring to the sound of hundreds of young people performing traditional music and song as the finale to this year’s Blas Festival in a special event to mark Scotland’s Year of Young People 2018, writes Euan Carr.

The Blas Festival is providing a platform to showcase the amazing talents of young people and provide them with various opportunities to express themselves through culture.

This will culminate in a largescale showcase of young talent – Òran Mòr – in Inverness on Saturday September 15, when more than 500 young musicians and singers are expected to perform alongside Skipinnish and Trail West, among others.

The Northern Meeting Park will be transformed into a concert venue for the day and organisers are confident at least 3,000 people will gather for this unique celebration of youth music-making.

Blas is also offering a new commission for a young musician, sponsored by Thorntons Investments, which will guarantee performances of a new piece at Blas, as well as the opportunity to record the work after the festival to bring the music to a wider audience.

Arthur Cormack of Fèisean nan Gàidheal, which organises the Blas Festival with The Highland Council, explained: ‘Blas has always involved young people as performers at events, mainly from Fèisean we support, but also from the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music based at Plockton High School, as well as Highland Council regional music groups, such as Snas and Còisir G.

‘This year their involvement will be even more widespread as young people take on a key

role in creating, organising and running events, offering them a range of experiences in the process. The young people with whom we are working have, so far, chosen two great Highland and Island bands, Skipinnish and Trail West, to play at Òran Mòr with more acts to be announced shortly.’

Blas means ‘taste’ or ‘sample’. Òran Mòr means ‘the great, or big, song’ and Ceòl nam Fèis means ‘music of the Fèisean’.

This year marks the 14th Blas festival, which was created as a result of Highland Council’s desire to have a festival in its area which would match the vitality of Cape Breton’s Celtic Colours.