As part of the Blas Festival’s stated objective of encouraging interest in traditional music among young people, the Festival organisers this week announced details of concessionary deals on ticket prices being offered to school pupils. For most events in the Blas programme each pupil will only pay £5 for their ticket which is about a half of the normal adult price. Furthermore free entry is being given to any an adult who is accompanying a group of six or more pupils to events. A parent, responsible adult or teacher, accompanying the pupils can use such free tickets.

This attractive deal is being made available to every school in the Highlands and, given the varied and geographically dispersed nature of the event venues, most schools in the area are within striking distance’ of at least one Blas performance.

Donna Cunningham, Blas’s administrator, helped arranged concessionary rates for pupils and she is delighted that the Festival has been able to make attendance at its events by youngsters much cheaper than would have been normally the case. “Blas is not simply a traditional music festival it is also geared to promoting the Gaelic language and culture and it also has a strong accent on youth. We have pulled out the stops to have young artists for the area appearing on the same stage as more mature, more recognised performers and now we want to ensure that as many youngsters as possible get an opportunity to attend the fantastic rage of shows being staged during the Festival. The special deals we have made for schools will certainly help in that regard.”

The Highland Council’s Music Development Officer, Norman Bolton, also welcomed this initiative. “Traditional music plays an important part in the musical life of so many of our schools and it is encouraging to find that Blas is supporting young people both as artists and audience.”

Interested schools should book directly through the local promoter for each event and their relevant ticket telephone numbers’ can be found on the Blas brochure.

If any school has difficulty contacting the relevant promoter they should call Donna Cunningham on 01463 783032, 9.00am-5.00pm, Monday to Friday.

Note

The above offer applies only to Blas events. Sadly, it cannot be offered for Celtic Chaos events at Talisker Distillery on September 9th & 10th and the Sutherland Festival event at Rogart Village Hall on September 8th. Though these events are staged in conjunction with Blas, the individual festivals run them.

For further information on the Blas Festival contact:-

By e-mail:
(please copy emails to both Donna Cunningham & Brian Ó hEadhra):

Brian: arts@blas-festival.com ; Donna: management@blas-festival.com

By post:

Donna Cunningham - Festival Manager/Brian Ó hEadhra – Artistic Co-ordinator

Blas Festival, c/o Craig Cottage, Crask of Aigas, By Beauly, Inverness-shire, IV4 7AD