Gigha Music Festival 2005
Gigha Music Festival 2005 got off to a roaring start with the
fine young piper Stuart Cassells (he played at the Proms in the
Park as televised the following night). He was followed by the
delightful singing of Maeve Mackinnon, back again this year.
Then the hall was set alight by the fantastic swing guitarists
Tom and Tam who play in the style of Django Rheinhart . We also
had some home grown talent this year as Lauren Milloy sang beautifully
and unaccompanied and our recent Chief Executive, Eleanor Logan,
gave her rendition of some Burns songs.
Then we had the excellent folk band Rallion and the evening ended
with a ceilidh by the Gigha Ceilidh Band.
On Saturday, various workshops took place during the morning
and the Gigha Football Team played against Panfish , the result
was 3-4 and Russell Town refereed the match.
The afternoon kicked off with the procession from the Fire Station
followed by the brilliant playing of the Campbeltown Pipe Band.
We had a performance from Gigha's own young Highland Dancers.
Bubbles the Clown kept everyone entertained and the children were
delighted with the free balloon sculptures. The adults were also
delighted with the samples of succulent smoked salmon provided
by Panfish .
The fabulous band Rockit gave two performances during the afternoon
and also the Thingumjjggers from Perth were so good that they
were asked to perform at the Hall in the evening. There were various
stall in the marquee and we had a Tug O War with Panfish again
competing against a team of islanders and anyone else they could
grab hold of! The winners, the combined team, were presented with
a bottle of whisky and a cup which stays in the Gigha Hotel until
the following year. The the kids had their own tug of war.
The field events were followed by a barbeque at the Boathouse.
The Saturday evening concert kicked off in fine style with the
fantastic pipe playing of Lorne MacDougall and was followed by
the spine-chillingly beautiful Gaelic singing of Ishbel MacAskill
who has a wonderful rapport with the audience. Lauren Milloy sang
for us again although she was suffering from a very bad throat
infection, and Eleanor Logan also sang a couple of Burns songs.
Ben Edom performed a couple of excellent guitar tracks and then
Canterrach wowed everyone with their raucous playing and fine
rendition of some lovely songs. Finally the evening ended with
the Rerr Terr Ceilidh Band until 2am.
Survivors night in the pub was hilarious. My team and I would
like to thanks everyone for coming and we hope to see you again
next year. I have to apologise for the lack of information on
the website about the purchase of tickets. As the festival has
become more popular, we had to limit tickets at the door for safety
reasons. This will be rectified next year and more information
will be available on this website.
Finally I would like to thank Ross Kennedy for all his hard work
in organising the concerts. My grateful thanks to my hardworking
team and anyone who helped in any way. Take care,
Sheila Mohr
Pictures of the festival are available at
Gigha
Festival Pictures
care of Eddie MacKinnon
