Cowal Events 1
Item Posted: Wednesday 28th March , 2007
Events in Cowal
The workshop was asked by the Press and Post monthly newspaper to provide a regular article on What’s on in Cowal during 2006. Here are the first two articles:
COWAL CONNECTIONS 1
Last year’s Cowalfest concerts provided some wonderful feedback, and one visitor, James Moncur from Edinburgh had a prediction to make: ‘ Having been visiting Cowal since before the US Navy left it has been interesting to see how the area has changed and recently there seems to be a real buzz about the place. Next year with the Mod, Cowal Games and Cowalfest it's going to be the place to be!’
So the Press and Post thought it would be a good idea over the months ahead to highlight some of the events planned, interview some of the people involved in this resurgence in the area, and give residents and visitors more information and help in planning what they might be interested in seeing. Although not everyone plans their diary months in advance, it is always useful to know what is coming up.
The Cowal Highland Gathering has come a long way since its inception in 1894, when the total gate receipts were £60! It now attracts over 3500 competitors from all over the world, many from Scottish communities-in-exile from Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Considered to be the premier Highland Games, it also attracts vast numbers of residents and visitors to the events. Shinty, dancing, piping, and athletics are obvious components of any such gathering, but they add in classic car displays and a wonderful fireworks finale.
Widely recognised as the Highland Gathering, the event hosts the World Championship Highland Dancing Competitions. Last year’s Adult World Champion, Colleen Rintamaki, reminisces; ‘Being up on the stage at Cowal is the most amazing feeling. Seeing the grandstand filled and all the other activities going on around you is just overwhelming. Cowal is definitely a very special games! There are so many great memories from Cowal but I think my favourite is the fling that I performed at the end of the day. Having just won you are bombarded with so many emotions and then dancing the fling with the whole audience clapping along and cheering you on is amazing.’
Malcolm Barclay, the Gathering’s secretary, is understandably upbeat about this year’s events ‘We expect to have about 700 competitors from around the world, and already have entries from dancers from America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa the UK and Ireland.’ But the gathering is clearly not just about competition: ‘Last year saw our largest entry for the Classic Car Rally and wehope to top this number this year, and we also are expanding the food hall which last year acted as a showcase for local businesses and was very well attended.’
The event is very much geared for spectators, who vary from the highly knowledgeable to the novice, but if you have not been before, hopefully in future years you will be one of those who add this event to their calendar at the beginning of each year. If you see nothing else you have to catch the finale - the unique and spectacular massing of the bands which sees 3,000 pipers play "Highland Laddie" in unison!
Cowal hosted the Mòd in 2000, and it returns to Dunoon this year. The largest indigenous music festival in Scotland, and is established as Scotland's premier festival of the Gaelic language, arts and culture. The Mòd is a competition-based festival which celebrating music, dance, drama, arts and literature. But you do not have to be a Gaelic speaker, or a competitor, to appreciate and enjoy the events.
Fund raising and planning for this year’s events are well under way. A local committee of volunteers, under the chairmanship of local councillor Dick Walsh, know well what is at stake, as hosting the events can provide an enormous boost to local businesses and the economy. Visitors who travel from all over the world not only spend money on their visit, but if they are taken with the area and the reception they receive, will return again. As Murdo Morrison, the Promotion Manager or the Royal National Mod said, ‘ The Mod relies on the support of the local community in the different locations Dunoon can certainly claim to be a cultural hotspot in 2006.’
Although the Mod is essentially a competitive event it also represents an opportunity for Gaels and non-Gaels to gather and renew old friendships as well as forging new ones. It has evolved organically, responding to contemporary changes in Gaelic education and the wider field of the Gaelic arts, acting as an incentive for talented individuals and groups to develop and refine their talents in the public arena. The Mod has been a significant cohesive element in keeping the Gaelic community together over the past century, but is also working at expanding the appreciation of Gaelic language and culture to a wider range of people. This may be thought to be particularly valid in Cowal, where the percentage of locals who have some understanding of Gaelic is the lowest in the Highlands. Joy Dunlop, the Gaelic Development Officer for Argyll and Bute, is working with a number of local schools to prepare children for competing in the events, and this in turn should lead to an increased involvement of schools in the resurgence of Gaelic in the area.
While both the Highland Gathering and the Mod have been well established for years, a comparative newcomer to the scene, Cowalfest, is only three years ‘old ’, but has already established itself as the largest Walking Festival in Scotland. Last October more than 80 guided walks were arranged, and the festival attracted has attracted increasing numbers of tourists from Europe, Australia and the US, making it one of the prime events for tourism in the Cowal Peninsular, yet it is still sparsely funded.
Now far more than a Walking Festival, it encompasses the arts, drama, crafts and music. The attractions of the festival to visitors are that it a community event involving a large number of groups from around the area, and the enormous variety of things to do.
Music has played an increasingly important role in the festival. Last year a key sell
out concert in Strachur was summarised by Scottish Music magazine:
‘The audience left with murmurings of ‘ world class act’, and ‘the best we have ever seen’,
outstanding memories, and encouragement to the organizers to put on still more quality
line ups in a corner of Argyll quickly establishing itself on the traditional music circuit.’
As one visitor from Dundee wrote afterwards ‘Everyone I talked to thought that Cowalfest was outstanding, and that having a range of other events such as your traditional music concerts added enormously to their overall enjoyment of the festival. The increased variety of events must be good for tourism and local businesses - as well, of course, as being a great benefit to the local communities.’
The Cowalfest committee clearly do not want to rest on their laurels, and just repeat the successes of last year. Successful innovations from last year, such as the Window Gallery (where 60 shops each display cutting edge art and incorporating guided walks by the artists), will be expanded. But the organisers are also looking at the possibilities of incorporating puppetry, Kathakali (an internationally renowned Indian dance and drama troupe), a film festival, drama walks, poetry, and an environmental conference.
You can keep up to date with the plans for these, and other events in Cowal, through this column in the months ahead, and by looking at the events’ web sites.
Cowal Highland Gathering. 24th to 26th August. www.cowalgathering.com
Cowalfest. 6th to 15th October. www.cowalwalking.org
Mòd. 13th to 21st October. www.mod2006.co.uk
More information on all these events: Visit Scotland, Dunoon 08707 200629