Hebridean Celtic Festival 2016

This post is dedicated to all things music over the 3+ days we spent at the Hebridean Celtic Festival. 

WEDNESDAY

Although the festival didn't officially kick off until Thursday, Bill and I had procured tickets to the Wednesday night kick-off event, Hebridean Women. We had no idea if it would be any good, but we found out upon arrival that the concert had sold out months in advance. At will call the gal handed us the tickets and told us if we had changed our minds, they had a wait list and would be happy to buy the tickets back. Heck no! We didn't really know any of the women preforming at the concert, but if that many people wanted to go, we were definitely going to go!  

Wednesday night's Hebridean women concert 

The Hebridean Women concert was held in a small (100 person or so) concert hall that was filled to capacity. We arrived early and were able to get some pretty good seats. All of the tickets said 'strictly no photography during the concert' so I took the above stage photo prior to the start of the show. And what a show it was! Julie Fowlis was the only woman I had even heard of (she sang the theme song for Pixar's Brave), but they all had beautiful voices. All of the songs were sung in Scots Gaelic (pronounced gah-lic, not gay-lic) and most of the preformance chatter between songs were also in Gaelic and it was clear that almost everyone in the audience could understand what was being said. Initially I wished for subtitles, but then I decided to just let the language wash over me and both Bill and I really, really enjoyed ourselves.

THURSDAY

Poster for Thursday night's Fara concert

Pre-concert, awaiting Fara

Thursday was spent down in Harris (see previous blog post), culminating in a Fara concert. Again, we weren't supposed to take photos during the concert, so I took one prior to the gals hitting the stage... Well, this wasn't really a stage, just one end of a small library. 

FRIDAY

The very next day, after our torrential downpour saga (see 'The Calm before the Storm' post) we got to see Fara again. This concert was at a much larger venue. I was so happy that their gig started with few attendees but by the end of their 90-minute set the marquee was packed with foot-stompin', hand-clapin', hee-yaw-ing festival goers. I saw lots of people break the 'no photo' rule, so I broke the rule, too!   

Friday's Fara concert at the festival grounds

Later we saw Julie Fowlis' 90-minute set in one of the festival tents. She is one of the better-known Hebridean vocalists and the tent was pretty well packed before her set started. Bill and I arrived early enough to get a really good, front and center spot. I like to arrive early whenever possible because I can't see anything if I'm too far back. Bill and I each took photos from our vantage point, as you can see from the photos below, tall Bill can see a lot more of the stage than short Jen! 

Friday's Julie Fowlis show (my view)

Julie Fowlis (Bill's view)

I also took a very short video, but my old iPhone 4s was starting to die and wouldn't take longer than 5-second video clips for the rest of our trip. 

The headliner for Friday night was the Red Hot Chile Pipers. They are a band with 4 or 5 bagpipers who cover lots of rock and roll tunes. They were fun, but once you've heard 20 minutes of hard rock bagpipe covers, you've heard 'em all. We were pretty exhausted from dealing with the rain all day, so we called Friday a done deal and headed back to our room.

Friday night's Red Hot Chile Pipers

Listening to the Pipers

SATURDAY

Most of the bands we were familiar with played on Friday, so Saturday was all about finding new bands to enjoy. One of the bands we really got a kick out of was Talisk. The guy in the center is currently the reigning 'young musician of Scotland' which is a very high honor. He mostly plays the concertina, a small accordion-like instrument. And let me tell you, he rocked that concertina! 

Saturday's Talisk concert

Another new find (to us) was a band called Breabach. They were half-way done with their set when we heard them, but we really liked what we heard. When we got home we ordered two of their CDs and have enjoyed them so far. Again, lots of traditional yet inspired folk music using fiddle, guitar, pipes, accordion, and bagpipes.  

Saturday's Breabach concert

We had been to a Rura concert back in our neck of the woods and, although we really enjoyed their music, noticed there was considerable tension within the band the night we saw them. They seemed to be getting along better at the festival, but then again, we never got too close to the stage on this particular session.  

Saturday's Rura concert

And then it was time for the final festival headliner, a Scottish band that has been around over 20 years, Runrig. Haven't heard of them? Well, we hadn't heard of them either, but the majority of the people on the island were absolutely going mental with anticipation to see them live. 

Runrig - the final headliner. 

We grabbed a spot within the tent (it was raining again) way back by the technical equipment. The band was all right, but when you've never heard the songs before, you kind of wonder why everyone's going bananas when certain songs start. 

A few beers were consumed

We had our final beer, enjoyed the first half of the Runrig concert, and when the rain settled down to a light mist, decided to call it a day.

Runrig

We made our way out of the festival grounds before the mad crush of humanity and walked through the slick mud-soaked grounds back into town and beyond to our BandB.

A very muddy end

I found this short video put together by the fine folks at HebCelt. All of the photos and music are from this summer's festival. Bill and I have watched the video several times and although we see lots of things we saw live,  we couldn't spot us in any of the background shots. It's still a fun video that gives a good feel for the festival. Enjoy!