Plans for this year’s Blas Festival are progressing apace and among the many exciting talents already booked up for the festival are two performers who excelled at this year’s Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Gaelic singer and multi-talented musician, Julie Fowlis is fresh from scooping the coveted Horizon Award at the Radio 2 event. She will perform at Strathy in Sutherland and the Nevis Centre in Fort William during the 10-day festival. “I am really pleased to be at Blas this year,” according to Julie, “last year’s festival was a huge success and the signs are that this year’s will be even better. I’m really looking forward to the great buzz Blas generates.” Mike McGoldrick, who was named Musician of the Year at the Radio 2 Awards, will also feature in the Blas festival programme. His band will appear at four concerts in Blas 2006. They first go to Ardross, then to Skye, to Badenoch & Strathspey and conclude their Highland tour in Nairn.

The 2006 Blas Festival runs between from the 1st to the 9th September and will use venues in six different Highland Council areas. This year. Nairn and Badenoch & Strathspey have been added to the areas which featured in 2005, namely Lochaber, Ross-shire, Skye & Lochalsh and Sutherland & Caithness. From the outset Blas’s principal aims have been to celebrate traditional music in the Highlands, to be innovative and to have a strong focus on Gaelic, young people and Highland communities, as well as international artists and audiences. Accordingly, the organisers have been talking with a range of exciting performers who best fit these criteria with a view to including them in this year’s festival. This process will be finalised soon and a full programme will be published thereafter. The Festival’s commitment to forging international links with kindred cultures will help shape this year’s programme and arrangements are currently being finalised to bring over a veritable galaxy of stars from Cape Breton and from Ireland.

Julie Fowlis, a Gaelic singer and musician from North Uist has enjoyed an almost meteoric rise to prominence over the last year or so.

Until recently she was better known as an accomplished exponent of the highland pipes and oboe but in recent years has been attracting attention as a Gaelic singer. She is lead vocalist in the hugely successful Dòchas, but is also an talented solo singer, a point underlined by last year’s accolade at the prestigious Pan-Celtic Sean-Nòs singing competition in 2004 which took place in Tralee, Ireland where she was named best singer.

In 2005 Julie’s debut solo album mar a tha mo chridhe was launched to great critical acclaim. Exemplifying this was the review in Living Tradition which described it as “an outstanding album of traditional Gaelic song from one of the most exciting young Scottish musicians and among the finest acoustic albums I have heard. Julie Fowlis's voice is fresh and unfussy, and she allows the natural flow of a song to emerge freely. Her singing is always beautiful and she excels too on a range of instruments: whistles, cor anglais and small pipes.”

Little wonder then that, earlier this month, she scooped the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Horizon Award, the first Gaelic singer to do so

Mike McGoldrick is already regarded as one of the greatest flute players of all time. Born in Manchester to Irish parents, Mike was encouraged by the thriving traditional Irish music scene in the city and by the age of 15, he had already won numerous All-Ireland Championships after swapping bodhran to play flute and whistles.

In November 1995, Mike formed Flook, the legendary Manchester folk act with fellow flautists Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen. Three years later, he was invited to join Scottish folk-legends Capercaillie (which Mojo magazine described as “a folk marriage made in heaven”), and has gone on to record Beautiful Wasteland, Nadurra and the recent award winning Choice Language while contributing classic compositions like Failte Gu Whalley Range and Kepplehall.

That year he helped form yet another band; the self-titled debut album from Irish folk artists, Lunasa, won many plaudits and he returned a year later to contribute to the follow-up album, Otherworld, which includes the track, Heaton Chapel. In 2001, he joined up with piper, John McSherry, to release the album At First Light.

Ag Ullachadh Airson Fèis Blas 2006

Tha plànaichean a’ tighinn air adhart gu math airson Fèis Blas na bliadhna seo agus a-measg an fheadhainn a tha air dearbhadh gum bi iad an lathair, tha dithis a choisinn cliù aig Duaisean Tràidiseanta Reidio 2. Tha an seinneadair Gàidhlig, Julie Fowlis, air Duais Horizon a chosnadh a sin; bi i a’ seinn aig dà choncert troimh’n Fhèis. Bi Mike McGoldrick, a choisinn duais Fear Ciùil na Bliadhna, cuideachd ag gabhail pàirt ann an Fhèis Bhlas na bliadhna seo. Bi a’ chomhlan-san rim faicinn aig ceithir concertan ann am Blas 2006. “Tha mi eagallach fhèin toilichte a bhi aig Blas na bliadhna seo”, thuirt Julie, “bha Fèis na bliadhna ‘n uiridh uamhasach soirbheachail agus tha a h-uile coltas gum bi tè na bliadhna seo fiuth’s nas fhèarr. Tha fodhail orm airson am Buzz a gheibh neach aig Blas!” Tha Mike cuideachd air a dhòigh pàirt a ghabhail ann. “Chuala mi rudan math mu Bhlas na bliadhna ‘n uiridh agus tha e sgoinneil a bhi a’ sàs ann am bliadhna. ‘S toil ‘m gu mòr a’ Ghaidhealtachd ‘s na h-Eileannan agus an luchd-eisdeachd an sin”.

Tha Fèis Bhlas a’ ruith bhon 1mh chun an 9mh latha dhen t-Sultaine agus bi e a’ cleachdadh sia aiteachain taobh a-staigh mor-roinn Chomhairle na Gaidhealtachd. Am bliadhna, tha Inbhir Naruinn agus Baideanach ‘s Strath Speidh air an cuir ri na bh’ann an uiridh, b’iad sin Loch Abair, Rois, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach ‘s Loch Aillse agus Cataibh ‘s Gallaibh. Bhon dol-a-mach, b’e prìomh amasan Blas ceòl tràidiseanta a chomharrachadh air Ghaidhealtachd, a bhi ùr-ghnathsach agus a bhi làidir air taobh na Gàidhlig, daoine òga agus coimhearsnachdan Gàidhealach, cho math ri luchd-ciùil agus sluaghan eadar-nàiseanta. Marsin, tha luchd-stiùiridh na Fèise air a bhi a’ comhradh ris an t-uamhas sheinneadaran ‘s luchd-ciùil ‘s fheàrr a fhreagras na h-amasan sin. Theid clàr suidhichte a dhearbhadh a dh’aithghearr agus a’ chlo-bhualadh sa bhad. Tha dleasdanas na Fèise gus caochladh chulturan a’ bhrosnachadh gu bhi foilleasach ann an clàr na bliadhna seo agus tha rian ga chuir an-drasta fhèin air na roinneagan ‘s fheàrr a thoirt a-nall à Ceap Bhreatuinn agus à Eirinn.