Solas keep it small to remain beautiful
Can you believe it we're past Mid-Summer now and the nights are beginning to get shorter. On Saturday last we managed to find our way down to the Solas Festival, in Wiston Lodge near Biggar. This is the second year for this small arts festival that is calling itself Greenbelt's little sister. There was something homely and honest about the event and although we only stayed a few hours it was obvious that people were enjoying themselves. I managed to meet up with a few friends I hadn't seen in years. It was a really enjoyable afternoon that spread into the early evening.
It was fascinating to discover many of the musicians that were around playing the Christian circuit 30 years ago were in fact part of the audience listening to their offspring play. And I guess I was no exception. "We See Lights" had put together a new collection of songs in collaboration with Jonny MacIntosh an Edinburgh singer songwriter. It turned out to be a great set of songs, unfortunately the timing wasn't brilliant as the 5.00pm slot seemed to be the tea time for most of the festival. Anyway I enjoyed hearing the "Lights" interpret another songwriters material and they sounded really good. Lets hope that the collaboration will last a little longer so that a wider audience will hear these songs. I particularly loved the song entitled "Wash Away" unfortunately the song was over by the time I remembered to turn on my iphone. Anyway here is another tune that I think is worth a listen.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ix9G10XV-k[/youtube]
The question is how viable are these kind of events. There is something that is good and wholesome about the small event. they say small is beautiful, that may be the case but it isn't always viable. For years i was involved with the organisation of the Carberry Festival trying to balance the books for the event was always a challenge. I'm often in awe of what my colleague Jock Stein was able to achieve at Carberry with so little resources.
Posted By: italker On: 2 Jul 2011 At: 12:09am
Its sometimes quite amazing the links we can find.