Programme of Gaelic events set to commemorate St Kilda Day
21 August 2009
On 29th August 2009 the first ever St Kilda Day will celebrate St Kilda - one of the world’s truly spectacular places. The event has been created by Pròiseact nan Ealan (PnE) to mark the evacuation of the last 36 St Kildans on 29th August 1930.
St Kilda Day will celebrate the place and the people, their lives and legacy in music and song, words and images, storytelling and film. Events are taking place all over the country, mostly on 29th August but with some fringe events before and after such as Anne Lorne Gillies’ tour of Songs of St Kilda with Rhona Mackay on clàrsach. Anne and Rhona will be retelling the St Kildan story through songs, music, images and poetry to audiences in Taynuilt Village Hall (26th August), Aros Centre, Portree (27th), Uig Community Hall, Lewis (28th), An Lanntair, Stornoway (29th), Harris Hotel, Tarbert (31st) and Southend Community Hall, Daliburgh, South Uist (1st September).
Other touring events include Nature Songs & Homeland Songs, featuring songs from St Kilda, which will be performed by four of the finest exponents of Gaelic music and song – Gillebride MacIllemhaoil, Margaret Stewart, Iain Macdonald, & Ingrid Henderson – in Seallam! Harris (28th August), and Berneray Community Hall (29th).
On St Kilda Day itself, Eden Court in Inverness will play host to a unique collection of St Kilda archive footage including some of the earliest films ever shot in Scotland in 1908 - 'St Kilda: Its people and its birds'. Later that evening a special 2 part St Kilda Concert will celebrate and commemorate St Kilda and its people. Part 1 will focus on the traditional sounds of St Kilda – unaccompanied Gaelic songs from Isobel Ann Martin and Anne Martin - with the second half made up of contemporary compositions inspired by the place. Fiona Mackenzie (Gress) and Calum Martin (accompanied by Brian O hEadhra and Lisa Mulholland) will be performing new Hiortach songs – their own response to St Kilda.
St Kilda Day in the Central Belt will feature The Island Tapes with Alyth McCormack followed by a St Kilda Ceilidh at the CCA in Glasgow and Aig oir na cruinne at Theatre Workshop in Edinburgh, with Donald S Murray, Calum Ferguson, Catriona Watt, James Graham & Mairi Macleod.
An Lanntair in Stornoway has programmed St Kilda events as part of their annual Hebridean Book festival Faclan. As well as Songs of St Kilda, local boys Iain Morrison and Daibhidh Martin will be doing their own unique take on St Kilda with a blend of past & present and fact & fiction in the 'St Kildan Post'.
A number of St Kilda related exhibitions will be open to the public on St Kilda Day in Seallam! (Harris), Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (Glasgow), Eden Court (Inverness), Scottish National Heritage (Perth), and Aros (Skye). There are plenty more events such as talks in Seallam and dramatised readings at the Kelvingrove – find out about all of these events and more at www.stkilda.eu.
St Kilda Day: Latha Hiort has arisen from the critically acclaimed St Kilda Opera, which took place in 5 European countries simultaneously during Midsummer 2007. The Belgian production of the opera thrilled sold out audiences as a highlight of Edinburgh International Festival 2009. St Kilda Day has received funding from Homecoming Scotland 2009, Leader +, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Bord na Gaidhlig, Comunn na Gaidhlig, Proiseact nan Ealan, Scottish Arts Council Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and UNESCO.
