Dark Skies festival events rescheduled for October
Two flagship 2021 Hebridean Dark Skies Festival live events have been rescheduled to Friday and Saturday October 15 and 16.
On Friday October 15, Renzo Spiteri will perform Stillness, an immersive live performance that takes audiences on a journey through the different textures of darkness and light.
And on Saturday October 16, Kathryn Joseph, Scottish Album of the Year Awardwinning songwriter, will perform live on the Isle of Lewis for the first time.
The show will feature visuals created by London-based artist collective Lumen, who are exhibiting in Scotland for this first time as part of this year’s Hebridean Dark Skies Festival programme.
The shows, originally planned as the festival’s opening and closing events in February 2021 but because of Covid restrictions had to be rescheduled, will both take place in the main auditorium at An Lanntair, which expects to be hosting live events again by this autumn.
Festival programmer Andrew Eaton-Lewis said: ‘We are really excited about welcoming live audiences back to An Lanntair.
‘There has been lots of in
Kathryn Joseph will be performing at An Lanntair in October.
terest in the Hebridean Dark Skies Festival from audiences outside of Lewis, with people from all over the world responding to February’s online programme.
‘We hope that putting on a weekend of Dark Skies events in October will encourage people to visit the island once it is safe to do so and we look forward to giving them a warm Hebridean welcome.’
Both shows, which went on sale on April 1, are still being ticketed as limited capacity events in anticipation of social distancing rules still being in effect in October. Those who booked tickets for the original dates in February will not have to re-book, but will be given the option of cancelling their tickets if they cannot make the new dates.
Kathryn Joseph, whose debut album Bones You Have Thrown Me and Blood I’ve Spilled won the 2015 Scottish Album of the Year Award, and whose follow-up was also shortlisted, said: ‘I feel so lucky to get to be part of the beautiful Hebridean Dark Skies Festival and I cannot wait for all of it.
‘My dad lives on Lewis so it will be lovely to be back there.’
Lumen are a London-based art collective of Louise Beer, Melanie King and Rebecca Huxley, who have curated or co-curated more than 70 exhibitions.
Their Dark Skies Festival exhibition will be open to the public as soon as An Lanntair re-opens after lockdown and is currently available to view in the venue’s virtual gallery.
Renzo Spiteri is an internationally respected multi-percussion player and drummer, composer and improviser who has been described as ‘an artist who constantly surprises’ and whose music ‘touches the soul directly’.