Fèis Lochabair

Fèis Lochabair aims to promote Gaelic culture, language and music in Fort William and Lochaber and such has been its success, this year marks its 30th anniversary.

The first week in August saw nearly 120 young people playing music, dancing, singing and playing shinty, all while using and learning Gaelic with a wide range of sessions from Pàrant is Pàiste for under two year olds, na Fèisean Beaga for those in nursery or attending primary one to primary three, all the way to the main Fèis which offers a range of activities for those age 8 to 18 years.

As always, it culminated in a fantastic cèilidh and concert with talented youngsters wowing the audience. Many of the youngsters will continue learning their instruments and step-dancing at the follow on classes we offer throughout the term.

The Ceilidh Trail was also running throughout the summer offering musicians aged 16 to 25 years a paid summer job and professional development opportunities. This year’s Ceilidh Trail has seen the musicians playing across Lochaber from Muck, Eigg, Canna and Knoydart to busy pubs on Fort William High Street. This year, the Ceilidh Trail has also taken to the stage in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh Fringe.

As part of the anniversary celebrations, Fèis Lochabair is thrilled that the Cèol nam Fèis Concert is coming to Fort William on September 9 to mark the Fèis movement by featuring young people from Fèisean across Scotland, alongside Lochaber musicians. For more information and to book tickets go to www. blas.scot/events.

An invite is also extended to anyone who has been a participant, parent, committee member, tutor or audience member of any of our events throughout the last 30 years to “save the date” and come along to a ceilidh with a buffet in Caol Community Centre on November 11.

Like every other organisation, increased operating costs such as the cost of hiring premises to hold annual/one-off events and weekly classes could potentially impact our ability to run such a range of events in future.

We are really keen to encourage anyone in the area to get involved in the Fèis, whether that is supporting the committee or participating in events to learn more about the Gaelic language and culture. If you are interested in finding out more about our work or getting involved, please follow us on Facebook (Fèis Lochabair) or email feislochabair@ feisean.scot.