December 2014/Week 3
Merry Christmas from the MNS team BBC ALBA to screen Mànran documentary on Xmas Day - see p4 SXSW Funding Opportunities - p6 : Scottish post-punk/indie film launches - p10
goNORTH
becomes
XpoNorth
to be held in Inverness on 10-11 June 2015 Scotland’s leading creative industries convention is to take on a new name in 2015. XpoNorth will pick up the reins from popular annual Inverness-based creative industries festival, goNORTH. The re-branded festival will take place on Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 June, 2015, in venues across the Highland capital. A creative melting pot devoted to crafts, publishing, screen and broadcast as well as music, XpoNorth 2015 will be attended by leading creative industry insiders, who will take part in workshops and masterclass sessions over the course of both days. Like its predecessor, XpoNorth is free for the public to attend. It will include the influential new music showcase, which sees music stars of tomorrow take to stages across Inverness on both nights of the festival, as well as the prestigious XpoNorth film showcasing programme, now a key platform for emerging film and documentary makers looking to make their mark in a fiercely competitive arena. XpoNorth Music will be managed by former goNORTH music producer Alex Smith with Ironworks Group directors, Robert Hicks and Caroline Campbell. It has been established as the new Music Industry Network for the Highlands and Islands and will be delivered by Ironworks Group. The 2014 festival showcase schedule in Inverness included much-lauded emerging artists such as Neon Waltz, Baby Strange, Ella The Bird, Hector Bizerk and Broken Records.
GLASGOW : 22 DECEMBER While the MNS team enjoy a short Christmas break our thoughts are with everyone affected by the events in Glasgow's Queen Street and George Square on Monday 22 December - and we wish the injured a speedy recovery. Many will suffer silently from what they witnessed that day, so please make time during a busy festive season for anyone you know who was there.
XpoNorth, is funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and is headed up by former BBC drama producer, Amanda Millen. Millen, a fluent Gaelic speaker and native of Lochaber, said: “This is a very exciting development for the creative industries in Scotland. The original festival started out in 2000 as a platform for musicians from the north of Scotland to be heard by the wider music industry in the Highlands." “XpoNorth has since grown and developed into a unique and much-anticipated event in Scotland's cultural calendar. In 2014, more than 1300 people working in a wide cross-section of creative genres, attended the festival in Inverness, compared to just 500 people in 2011. “Rebranding as XpoNorth offers us the ideal opportunity to tell the world what we do and what we are all about. The new name reflects XpoNorth’s broad scope across the creative industries.
..... story continued on page 16
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