Scotland's Islands, in the midst of a year-long celebration of all that is special about them, are at the heart of this year’s Blas festival giving the audience a flavour of island culture – Blas nan Eilean.   Additional funding of £30,000 has enabled Blas organisers to include a number of prestigious events which would not otherwise have been possible.
 
Murdo Mackay of the Scotland’s Islands initiative said: “We are excited to include Blas 2011 as a flagship event in the Year of Scotland’s Islands, and look forward to this year’s enhanced programme including the new strand focusing on island culture. The festival is set to be a real draw for visitors to Skye as well as the island community.”
 
The highlight of the unique collaboration between the two events is a special commission led by one of the UK’s top musicians Julie Fowlis.  Combining newly composed and traditional material influenced by the uninhabited island of Heisgeir (often referred to as The Monach Isles) and building on her own family connections to the island, Julie has taken her inspiration from its geography, history and legends. Using lyrical, film, narrative and musical devices to bring different aspects of the work to life, ‘Heisgeir’ will feature acclaimed musicians Éamon Doorley and Duncan Chisholm.
 
‘Heisgeir’ will open the Blas Festival on Friday September 9 at Phipps Hall in Beauly. A week later, in the year marking the centenary of Raasay’s Sorley MacLean, Blas 2011 will reprise Hallaig, which was commissioned from Highland composer Stuart MacRae (whose parents are from Skye) by Urras Shomhairle, the Sorley MacLean Trust, for Celtic Connections 2009.
 
Inverness Cathedral will be the venue for this unique musical celebration of the poetry of Sorley MacLean on 16 September with musical director Kenneth Thomson featuring compositions by Stuart MacRae, Mary Ann Kennedy, Eilidh Mackenzie, Marie-Louise Napier, Allan Macdonald, Blair Douglas, Donald Shaw, Allan Henderson and Kenneth Thomson. Hallaig will also be performed in Skye at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on Friday, September 16.
 
In a culmination of a very special synthesis, Blas 2011 celebrates the Year of Scotland's Islands with a series of "Island Cèilidhs" showcasing some of the best known Gaelic singers from the islands along with great traditional accompaniment. The line-up includes John (Seonaidh Beag) MacMillan, Mary Smith, Chrissie MacVicar, Paul MacCallum, Mary Catherine MacNeill, Iain MacKay and Ian and Murdo Cameron.
 
In the style of the wandering minstrels of bygone generations, the Blas islanders are about to take the Highlands by storm and will give everyone a taste of what it’s like to be at an island cèilidh. The venues for the cèilidhs are Glendale in Skye, Glenelg Village Hall, Eigg, Mallaig, Raasay and Strathy.
 
Arthur Cormack of Fèisean nan Gàidheal, the organisation contracted by the Highland Council to run Blas said:  “We are very grateful to the Scotland’s Islands initiative for additional funding which has allowed us to programme unique elements of island culture into the 2011 Blas Festival but, more importantly, it allows us to take high quality events to communities in some of Scotland’s islands including Skye, Raasay and Eigg. We wanted to celebrate island culture in the islands as well as bringing island culture to mainland venues and working with Scotland’s Islands is allowing us to do so.”