The Isle of Skye Music Festival 2007 - Day 2- part 1!

Let's get the moaning out of the way first! FolkingAbout gets about a bit and we are quite happy to rough it out in festival toilets and wade through mud and beer cans to get around, but the organisers of the The Isle of Skye Music Festival could do with a re-think when it comes to camping facilities. We arrived in our caravanette to use the advertised "dedicated site" - only to be guided to the "quarry" - ie a hole in the ground, part filled with water, part with fly-tipping waste and with no water, no toilets and no security - no thanks! No sleeping in the car parks either - a health and safety edict apparently driven by the fear of our setting open fires and burning all the cars down. So we ended up forking out for a berth at a caravan site some 15 miles away, which meant no beer, more money - and our arrival back to the caravan site just before dawn - and even in stealth mode "Harry" is no ballet dancer! The good news is that we had toilets and hot running water - but really we would think more than twice before going back if nothing changes.


The festival itself is run at the south end of runway 25 at Broadford airstrip, the mainstage being on the threshold and the remainder of the site stretching northward along the runway. So there was a goodly amount of solid tarmac under the feet, and where the runway ended, there was fairly well drained hardstanding which got wet and muddy, but not the deep swampy stuff you get in fields - thank goodness because it did rain a bit! The site is also compact with 4 stages and a sound-system tent all within yards of each other, all very handy, but it did lead to problems for musicians not playing with their amps on number10, especially in the traditional music tent "The Shipping Forecast".


All this messing about with campsites had sent us a bit sideways and we needed some music to get us straight again - Step forward Ash who - ok we admit it -we thought at first were Kasabian, 'til they played stuff we knew was by Ash, and who we then managed to miss due to a diary failure! Ash played what the NME rightly called a "rapturously-received set" featuring the hits - including "Girl from Mars" and "Angel Interceptor", and ending the show with "Twilight of the Innocents" - the title track of the next CD - a really exciting and almost prog departure for the trio whose repertoire is mostly guitar based pop songs, they had to resort to backing tracks for this, but we'll let them off because it sounded great and the large crowd really did enjoy it. The set was confident and triumphal, and the new single "Polaris" sounds to be a cracker.

It was a short step from Ash to Fiona Mackenzie who appeared with a guitarist whose name I didn't get, and keyboard player Rick Taylor who was excellent. Fiona sings many of her own songs, often in Gaelic, and her final piece - a trilogy composed by herself with lyrics from her poetic sister was really fine. Fiona has her debut CD coming out "sometime this year".

Outside in the rain, something rather good was going on in an old caravan - the DUKesbox is a mobile folk group with their own stage, sound system and transport all rolled into one - 3 chaps in splendid suits play the audiences choice of cover versions, selected via an old typewriter device, and they played all day and all night in their very own style. Check out that website for more.

Back with more from this day soon.....


All pics on this page - except for the green Ash one which I took - by Gilly.