A much-loved Skye festival is to take to the world stage when it goes virtual next week.
Skye Live will be broadcast online for the first time next month after organisers were forced to reassess their options for the second year in a row due to Covid.
In February, organisers announced they were postponing the annual two-day event, traditionally held in Portree Bay, until May 2022 to be sure attendees “can have the experience you’re used to.”
But four months on, directors are now putting the finishing touches together ahead of the one-night spectacular on Thursday, July 8.
Recreate the iconic festival
Michael Pellegrotti, co-director of Skye Live, said they wanted to recreate the event to showcase Scotland’s brightest talent.
“With nearly two years since our last event we wanted to try and recreate the real Skye Live experience as much as possible – presenting our favourite artists in beautiful surroundings.
“Lucky for us we’re not short of mesmerising locations on Skye and the artists came through with the music to match.”
Skye Live puts Skye on the map
Established in 2015, Skye Live has carved out a reputation as one of the most unique festival experiences Scotland has to offer.
The unique 2021 installment of the festival will feature four exclusive performance pieces filmed at some of the island’s most iconic locations.
Gaelic trio SIAN will kick the festival off with a performance streamed from Coire Lagan, a small lochan on the south side of the Cuillin Ridge.
Viewers will then be transported to Sligachan where award-winning small piper Brìghde Chaimbeul is teaming up with fiddler Aidan O’Rourke of Lau-fame for a mesmerising performance in front of the Black Cuillin mountains.
For the third act, Skye Live is going north for one of the most unique performances ever hosted by the festival.
Electronic artist Lord Of The Isles has created a bespoke piece of music featuring poetry by fellow Edinburgh-based artist Ellen Renton.
Inspired by, and set at, the Old Man of Storr, this audio-visual piece showcases one of Skye’s most photographed locations like it has never been seen before with a light show to transform the landscape into an ethereal dreamscape.
Closing the festival is the Skye Live’s resident band and Gaelic electronica pioneers Niteworks, who will be performing at the Quiraing.
Normal service to resume in 2022
Mr Pellegrotti is now looking ahead to the traditional two-day even retuning in May next year, bringing light at the end of a long tunnel.
He thanked their sponsors and fans for their continued support.
“We hope everyone enjoys it as much as we enjoyed making it, and can’t wait to see you all in person in 2022,” the director added.
“We’d also like to express our gratitude to EventScotland for their support in bringing it to reality, it’s been a dream of ours for some time and we couldn’t have done it without them.”
The one-night festival will commence at 8pm on July 8.