Following consultation with its partners, including the Scottish Arts Council, Highland Council and Inverness & Nairn Enterprise, The Highland Festival has today announced the postponement for a year of the event.

Although all agree this will be disappointing for audiences who have supported and enjoyed the Festival over a number of years, it is important to emphasise that this is only a temporary, one year suspension and that planning has already begun for Highland Festival 2006. 

Garry Coutts, Highland Festival Chairman, explained, “It has taken longer than first envisaged to put the strategy for the new look Highland Festival in place.  Having identified a number of major new developments, the festival is re-profiling to deliver in 2006.  

“Given that these are major tasks for the organisers, all of the partners agree that the Festival would benefit from additional time to plan and programme a Highland Festival that truly showcases Highland arts and culture at its very best.”

The Scottish Arts Council commented,
“We support the Highland Festival’s decision to postpone this year’s event. We will continue to work closely with them and the other partners involved to develop their plans for the coming years.”

The Highland Council added, “We understand that the Festival wants to take some time to refocus and we will be working closely with the Festival Board and our partners.”

A spoke person from Inverness & Nairn said, "INE supports the decision of the Highland Festival to take the opportunity to take stock. We look forward to hearing from them regarding their proposals for 2006 and beyond." 

While the finer details of the 2006 Highland Festival are being kept under wraps, the new ten-day format will include a large number of city centre based free events for the first weekend, various more specific arts themes throughout the week and a high profile special event for the second weekend.