As part of the celebrations for Highland 2007, the year Scotland celebrates Highland culture, Unique Events have announced The Outsider. This brand new and ground- breaking festival will take place over the mid-summer days in Rothiemurchus near Aviemore from 22-24 June next year. For the first time a weekend festival will draw together top live music acts along with outdoor activities including a major new mountain bike event - the Merida Outsider - debate and appreciation of the immediate surroundings as well as world wide concerns.

“Rothiemurchus, gateway to the Cairngorms, has become a name which is etched deep in the consciousness of Scotland and which holds an exceptional place in the natural history of the nation.”
Magnus Magnusson

Devised by Pete Irvine of Unique Events and Neil Dalgleish of Hillside, this new festival will be a landmark event, celebrating our important relationship with nature and the environment in the Highlands. The Outsider will offer a first class programme of entertainment and outdoor activities in one of the most glorious settings in Scotland.

In this inspiring landscape, with the backdrop of the Cairngorms and Loch an Eilean nearby, a festival arena will host a diverse international and national programme of top music, cultural events, comedy and film, debate, dancing and even stargazing. Over three days, in the dramatic countryside around the festival site a uniquely eclectic “menu” of outdoor activities will also be on offer – from kayaking and mountain biking to wild food foraging and ranger-led walks. Following the details of the Merida Outsider a full programme will be announced at end of January.

Unique Events is currently negotiating with potential funders and collaborators, many of whom have committed a range of support and sponsorship to this world class event. This is one of the first major events to be announced in the programme for Highland 2007 - a year of national cultural celebration promoting the Highlands as a fantastic place to live and visit.

The Outsider, while core funded by Highland 2007, is also supported by HIE Inverness and East Highland, The Highland Council and the Cairngorm National Park Authority.

Pete Irvine, Event Director said, “Our aim is to reinvent the open air festival. I do not think that there is any other event like this in the world which, by bringing together outdoor and cultural activities and live music, will have an audience that are more in tune with the changes that the planet is currently undergoing. The debate about the environment and climate and consumerism is all about the same thing. The pop festival and the shopping mall and the way we use everything up has created a world of passive consumers. But increasingly people reject this. The Outsider is for people who want to contribute, not just to consume; they want to do - not just die. It’s for people who want to change the world. And we’re delighted and privileged to be able to create this unique project for Scotland in one of Britain’s most beautiful and special places.”

Alison Magee, chair of Highland 2007, said: “I’m sure The Outsider will be an outstanding event inspired by the spectacular natural environment we have here in the Highlands. It is very appropriate that this new festival is one of the flagship events for Highland 2007, the year long celebration which itself is a showcase for the unique and special nature of Highland culture.”

For more information on Highland 2007 and a full event listing visit www.highland2007.com.  Tickets will be on sale from beginning of February 2007.