Drinks giant Diageo and the Highland Festival are celebrating this week after being informed that they have been short-listed for one of the UK's most prestigious awards, celebrating excellence in partnerships between business and the arts.  The nomination in the BP, Arts Business & Sustainability Category of the Arts & Business UK Awards 2003 follows on from the success at this year’s A&B Scotland Awards where Highland Festival scooped the top prize – The Arts Award – in recognition of it’s success in attracting business sponsorship, in particular its funding from Diageo and Chevron Texaco.

The Awards are open to any business/arts partnership in the UK and the Diageo/Highland Festival nomination is one of only a handful of Scottish companies to make the shortlist of 35 out of an original nomination list of over 120.

 Diageo’s Classic Malts has been one of the Highland Festival’s major private sponsors since its inception in 1996 and in recent years has sponsored the festival’s highly acclaimed theatre tours of ‘Hard Pressed’, ‘Accidental Death of an Accordionist’, ‘The Wedding’, and this year’s ‘Sea to Shore – Living with the Elements’ project. 

Highland Festival Director Alastair McDonald said:  “Making the shortlist is a great honour for the festival.  It demonstrates our achievements in attracting and retaining business sponsors and specifically recognizes how positive our working partnership with Diageo’s Classic Malts has become.   This, added to the core funding we receive from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish Arts Council, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The Highland Council goes a long way towards ensuring the continuing success of the Highland Festival”.

Plans for the 2004 Highland Festival between 4 – 12 June are already well under way with Diageo’s Classic Malts once more on board.  Commenting on the award short listing, Community Relations Manager, Elaine Bailey from Diageo said: “This is fantastic news.  Through the Classic Malts sponsorship Diageo and the Highland Festival have, over the years, built a remarkable partnership concentrating on bringing high quality, innovative art to some of Scotland’s remotest communities.  To be recognised for this achievement at the Scottish Arts & Business Awards earlier this year was indeed a great accolade – to be short-listed at a UK national level is an even greater honour.”

The A&B Awards 2003 will be presented at a gala concert held at the Barbican Arts Centre in London on the 18th February 2004.