Congratulations to Fèis Rois who have been nominated in Event of the Year in the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2020. Vote now!
We asked Fiona Dalgetty of Fèis Rois the following questions.
Tell us about yourself
Founded in 1986, Fèis Rois is one of Scotland’s leading traditional arts organisations. A small organisation with a big impact, Fèis Rois creates transformative opportunities for people of all ages to celebrate and engage with traditional music and the Gaelic language. Our vision is to promote excellence and encourage participation in all aspects of the traditional arts, including supporting creativity, innovation and contemporary practice in Ross & Cromarty, Scotland and beyond.
Why are you involved in Scottish music?
We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to make music, and to learn about the music of the place in which they live.
Any particular career highlights?
Fèis Rois celebrates its 35th anniversary next year and we have had so many highlights it would be impossible to list them all here. With a huge alumni, it is always a joy to see our former participants nominated in so many different categories for the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards.
A highlight of 2020, and this strange time in which we are all living, was our Virtual Fèis Weekend, and we are thrilled that it has been nominated as Event of the Year! 50,588 people from 50 different countries joined our 3 concerts and 12 workshops between 1st and 15th May! People spent 250,000 minutes (more than 4,000 hours!) going over the workshops on Facebook and donated a generous £14,723, which enabled us to pay 35 musicians and creative practitioners who contributed to the event as well as supporting Fèis Rois as a charity.
What are your plans for the future?
As always, we have lots of plans in the pipeline… We are about to launch our next block of online classes (see www.feisrois.org). We have commissioned Iain Fraser to write a new work celebrating 30 years of our Adult Fèis event, and we look forward to launching this exciting new album in 2021. We are currently collaborating with lots of trad musicians to explore new digital ways of working with pupils and teachers in hundreds of primary schools the length and breadth of the country from Caithness to Dumfries!
Read more about Fèis Rois
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/feisrois
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/feisrois
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/feisrois
The MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards, Na Trads 2020, will be broadcast on BBC ALBA on 12th December 2020 at 9pm where the award winners will be announced along with specially recorded music performances. During the day on Saturday the 12th, you will be able to watch from 1pm til 9pm a day of live Scottish trad music including Kinnaris Quintet, Dallahan, Inyal, Paul McKenna Band, Ryan Young and Jenn Butterworth and many more here https://youtu.be/amByvVzxl5E. Keep up to date with all the latest information by joining the Hands Up for Trad newsletter at https://handsup.link/Newsletter or use the hashtags #natrads #HUFTonline.
If you would like to support Hands Up for Trad in their work with Scottish trad music and musicians please consider supporting our Patreon campaign. We have 3 tiers starting at $1 a month and everything helps support us in our work. Read more at www.patreon.com/handsupfortrad