Skye Live Festival to host special online occasion ahead of 2022 return
The Skye Live Festival will return to its traditional home of Am Meall – The Lump – in Portree in May 2022.
The annual Skye Live music festival is set to showcase four exclusive performances in a special digital event today (Thursday 8th July).
The musical extravaganza is traditionally held over two days on Skye but last took place in 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
With the next in-person edition of the festival now scheduled for 2022, the event organisers have decided to whet the appetite of music lovers by curating an online occasion featuring a broad range of exciting acts whose performances have been filmed at some of the island's most iconic locations.
Gaelic trio SIAN will kick the festival off with a performance streamed from Coire Lagan, situated on the south side of the Cuillin Ridge with spectacular views over the island of Barra.
The audience will then be transported across the Cuillin Ridge to Sligachan. There, award-winning smallpiper Brìghde Chaimbeul is teaming up with fiddler Aidan O'Rourke of Lau-fame for a performance in front of the Black Cuillins.
For the third act, Skye Live will venture north.
Electronic artist Lord Of The Isles has created a bespoke piece of music featuring poetry by fellow Edinburgh-based artist Ellen Renton. Inspired by and set at the Old Man of Storr, the audio-visual piece showcases one of Skye's most photographed locations like it has never been seen before.
Closing the festival is Skye Live's resident band and Gaelic electronica pioneers Niteworks, who will be performing at the Quiraing.
Niall Munro, co-founder, and co-director of Skye Live Festival told the Free Press: "We're very much looking forward to returning to our natural home next year in 2022, with some very exciting announcements to be made.
"As a little precursor and for something a bit different to the physical event, we can't wait to showcase the video series we've been working on over the last few months.
"The concept for this project has been in discussion for years, and as we finally look to release the video this week, excitement and anticipation levels are running high.
Michael Pellegrotti, co-director added: "We hope everyone enjoys it as much as we enjoyed making it, and can't wait to see you all in person in 2022. We'd also like to express our gratitude to EventScotland for their support in bringing it to reality, it's been a dream of ours for some time and we couldn't have done it without them."
The whole event will be hosted from the Skye Live Festival site, Am Meall – The Lump – in Portree, and will be broadcast for free on Thursday 8th July at 8 pm UK time.
You can view the live stream via the Skye Live Facebook page or Skye Live YouTube channel
The festival which was established in 2015 will return to its in-person format from the 13th to 14th May 2022.
Article by Adam Gordon, and image courtesy of Michael Pellegrotti.
Tagged Aidan O'RourkeAm MeallBrìghde ChaimbeulCuillin RidgeEllen RentonIsle of SkyeLauLord Of The IslesNiteworksPortreeSIANSkye Live FestivalThe Old Man of StorrThe Quiraing