Blas was nominated in the ‘Event of the Year’ category for the 2005 Scottish Traditional Music Awards, a remarkable achievement for the festival considering that it was only this year that Blas was inaugurated.
The Scots Traditional Music Awards’ Celebrations, hosted by Hands up for Trad in association with BBC Scotland Interactive, tookplace on the 3rd December, 2005 at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh and was compered by Mary Ann Kennedy and Iain Anderson. The aim of the Awards is to celebrate Scotland's rich musical heritage and in doing so, create a high profile annual event to bring traditional music centre stage. The annual celebration of Scotland's talent aims to encompass Scotland's thriving musical culture from Gaelic song, folk, Scottish country-dance, pipe bands and a whole lot more.
Donna Cunningham, administrator for Blas, is delighted that the festival has received this accolade so early in its history. “Clearly, it’s a great honour to have been nominated for the award. Many people worked long and hard to establish Blas and it’s great that their efforts gave been recognised and rewarded in this way. The first Blas festival proved very successful and, buoyed with the news of our Awards’ nomination, we’re currently working to ensure that next year’s Blas will be even better.”
Acts playing at this year’s awards celebrations included Blazin' Fiddles, Maggie MacInnes Band, Jim Malcolm, Plockton National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music, Kirkwall City Pipe Band, Stuart Cassells, TMSA Young Trad Musicians (featuring all the finalists of the 2005 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award), Anna Massie Band and The Occasionals.