A Festival that opens with “Genticorum” from Quebec, comedian Phil Kay, a Hebridean travel writer and a children’s show seems hardly the programme of a small island festival. That is only the first day. Coming along behind at a terrific pace are Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, all three of the piping Macdonald brothers and a complete Book Festival.

Add in a Nashville Bluegrass Band and a traditional Swing band introduced in Gaelic, followed 90 events later by a wild final concert with fiddler Alastar Fraser and the rock bag-pipe band led by Stuart Cassells, and you understand the organisers’claim that this is Scotland’s best small festival.

“We don’t believe in limiting what we put on in any way – except in quality”, explains Festival Director, Duncan MacInnes. “Our audiences like to come to hear the best in traditional music one night, and then go straight on to some late-night comedy or come back for a theatre piece or a film the next night. It is like the whole of the Edinburgh Festival in one small venue but with much better views.

The festival also caters for children, with several shows and workshops specifically for them.

The 16th Skye Festival launches its amazing diverse programme of over 90 events in 11 days in the inspirational venue of Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic College in south Skye on 25 July.

In 2006 the “Aos Dana” Book festival piloted last year, has become a major part of the festval with 10 authors who live in or write about the Hebrides.

The Skye Festival runs from 25 July to 4 August and takes place in Sabhal Mor Ostaig, near Armadale in south Skye and various other venues on the island.