Posts Tagged “solas”

Last weekend something small but hugely significant happened.  The first Solas Festival took place at Wiston near Biggar.

Festivals come and go, but this one is, I think, the one that Scotland has been waiting for.  A place to share ideas, to hear deep thoughts, to sing a new song and hear a different melody.

Solas is inspired by Greenbelt but has a very Scottish flavour, both in the words and songs.

Scotland needs a space like this.  If you missed it this time then make sure you get there next year.  It could just be what you’ve been looking for.

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Off to Solas tomorrow.  Hope to see some of you there!!!

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DAY TICKETS NOW ON SALE THROUGH OUR WEBSITE (Click here)

Guarantee your spot, avoid the queues on the gate and help us to plan by booking your tickets early.
Watch the website for more details of what’s happening each day at Solas – we’re confirming our programme as this goes out.

Here are some appearances we’ve already got pinned down…

FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY
Iain Morrison McIntosh Ross Peatbog Faeries
Found Richard Holloway Mr McFall’s Chamber
The Starlets Juliet Turner Stanley Odd
Esther O’Connor Eugenie Harvey Kim Edgar

KEEP UP WITH THE LATEST SOLAS NEWS
Have you seen our new blog? It’s pretty nifty. We’re updating it all the time with news and information to keep you in the loop and whet your appetite for the weekend.
Our favourite part is the Solas Countdown clock at the bottom – we’re getting more excited by the hour!
Find the blog here - and if you’d like to submit a piece on what you’re looking forward to at the festival, email it to office [at] solasfestival [dot] co [dot] uk
You can also follow us through our website and our Facebook page and on Twitter (if you are a Tweeter, then you can use the hashtag #solasfest to help promote the festival)


BECOME AN ACTIVE PART OF SOLAS – GET INVOLVED, HELP SPREAD THE WORD
Getting a new festival off the ground in such lean times is not easy and we’re not embarrassed to say we need all the help we can get. We want Solas to be a community, not just a festival, and we’re working hard to grow something from the grassroots. Can you help us make Solas a reality?
We need volunteers for the weekend (more info below) and we’re still recruiting Solas Saints who are willing to make a small, but regular financial commitment to provide long-term security for the project. In the short term, marketing is our main aim – we want to sell lots of tickets!
So maybe you could take some of our newly printed leaflets to handout, or give us a plug through your online networks? It would really help us if you forwarded this newsletter on to your friends.  If all of you sent it to 6 people, our little online community would expand quickly – even if you can’t come to the festival please pass on the word.
Maybe you know an organisation who’d like to exhibit or sell their products at Solas? We’re also keen to hear about churches who might want to get involved as one of our congregational partners by making a donation or sponsoring some young people to attend the festival. If you’d like to talk about how you can play an active part in making Solas happen, contact office [at] solasfestival [dot] co [dot] uk – we’re open to ideas!.

ACCOMMODATION
Camping will be available onsite – just turn up and pay (bring cash if you can, cause it speeds things up) – prices are per tent and allow you to camp for the whole weekend; £20 for a 2-man, £30 for a 3-man and so on up to a max of £50. (This is roughly equivalent to £5 per person per night, but it’s just a bit easier to administer.)
There will be no general vehicle access to the campsite, but the festival site is quite compact and we will be able to help you ferry your stuff from the carpark.
The campsite will open at 4pm on Friday 25th and close at 10am on Monday 28th June. If you have special access requirements, please contact the office to talk about how we can help. There will be a disabled campsite with short-term vehicle access.
We also have a few hotel rooms left in the nearby Days Inn hotel at Abington Services (a shuttle bus will be making the 10-min trip to the site regularly) for £69 per room per night. We have single, double, twin and family rooms available. Please email office [at] solasfestival [dot] co [dot] uk to book

VOLUNTEER APPEAL

We’re still looking for people with all sorts of skills, so get in touch if you’d like to be a part of the Solas volunteer community. We’re particularly desperate for volunteer stewards – work a few 3hr shifts over the weekend and you can enjoy the rest of the festival at a fraction of the usual price.
Volunteering is a great way to meet people and you’ll also receive training and support (as well as that all important half-priced ticket to the festival!). Help us to grow something out of the ordinary – email  office [at] solasfestival [dot] co [dot] uk.

CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL
(We’ve told you this before, but we don’t want anyone to miss out!)
For children aged 3-10
You will be able to book your child into ONE supervised session per day at the festival. The 90-minute sessions will be limited and places will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. You can pre-register your child by following the instructions on the website as soon as you have bought your tickets – another great reason to get them early! We don’t want anyone to be disappointed so if you’d like your children to take part in the children’s festival please get your tickets now and book them in.
For young people aged 11 and over
We are offering the option to book young people into professionally supervised outdoor activity sessions, including canoeing and climbing/adventure equipment. Due to the need to pay professionally qualified instructors, these activities will incur an additional charge and must be booked in advance. More detailed information will be available soon; places are extremely limited so to get on our initial registration list, please buy your tickets and send your reference number and names and ages of your children to office [at] solasfestival [dot] co [dot] uk

Be a shining example – become a SOLAS SAINT today!
click here to visit the Solas Saint webpage
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Summer is fast approaching, although you’d never know it from the cold weather today!

With volcanic ash and potential strike action on the cards it makes more sense than ever to holiday at home and take in the new Solas Festival on 25-27 June at Wiston Lodge near Biggar.

There are some fantastic speakers including Douglas Alexander MP, Gerry Hassan, John Swinton, Kathy Galloway, Chris Harvie MSP, Shaun Burnie, Dan Glass, Doug Gay, Cole Moreton, Alastair McIntosh, Vérène Nicolas, Eugenie Harvey, Richard Holloway, Kathryn Heyman, Osama Saeed and Stuart Blythe.

Musical highlights  feature The Russian Choir, SuplexTheKid, Kitty the Lion, Yvonne Lyon, Jo Mango, Calamateur, Rory Butler, Brian McGlynn, Monica Queen & thrum, Mr McFall’s Chamber, Esther O’Connor, Peatbog Faeries, McIntosh Ross, Juliet Turner, Iain Morrison, Fair Witness and We See Lights.

There is also a great programme for children and young people, a performing and visual arts programme and a huge range of worship.

You can now download the latest solas leaflet for may.

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Solas Festival

Last chance to get early bird tickets.

There are just a few days left to buy your tickets at our lowest rate. Get your tickets before the end of February and you will save money – and help out our cashflow.  Need more persuasion? Take a look at some of the highlights already conformed for our line-up.

LINE-UP – listen, learn, create, watch, join-in, debate, play.

If variety is the spice of life, then SOLAS 2010 is red hot! We want to reflect the diversity of the Arts in Scotland with a programme that welcomes all ages and caters to all tastes.
We think there is something in here for everyone and there’s much more to come…

So keep checking our website regularly for updates!

MUSIC
Our eclectic music programme celebrates the Scottish music scene in the context of a world stage – here are just some of the artists we’ve already booked :

Steeped in the rich tradition of Americana, MCINTOSH ROSS have blended the sounds of Caledonia and California – you may be familiar with their work in Deacon Blue, but this is the First Couple of Scottish pop as you’ve never seen them before

Scotland’s favourite festival band PEATBOG FAERIES have taken their unique brand of Celtic fusion all over the world

Irish songstress JULIET TURNER revisits the intimacy of her early sound with acoustic guitar and narrative story-telling

BIG GROOVE SAMBA DRUMMING will be there to get you dancing

TALKS
Immerse yourself in issues of faith, justice, politics and climate change with our programme full of talks and debates. We’ve invited some of the most engaging speakers, writers and activists we could find, inside and outside of Scotland :

One of the most controversial religious figures in the U.K, writer, broadcaster and Chair of the Scottish Arts Council – RICHARD HOLLOWAY

Described as one of ‘Scotland’s top 100 thinkers and opinion formers’, (the Scotsman), one of the county’s ‘brightest and best’, (the Sunday Herald), and ‘Scotland’s most influential Muslim’, (the Sunday Times), – OSAMA SAEED

A fiery and lyrical commentator on faith and culture in Scotland – poet, preacher, and campaigner for justice, and currently Director of Christian Aid Scotland – KATHY GALLOWAY

Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire, and Secretary of State for International Development – DOUGLAS ALEXANDER MP

Independent scholar, activist, speaker, writer and broadcaster – ALASTAIR MCINTOSH

PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS
Participation will be at the heart of our performing and visual arts programme, so you can join in with a whole host of workshops and creative opportunities. We’ve also got some exceptional performances and a whole mini-festival for film buffs to get their teeth into :

Award winning novelist and film-maker BERNARD MACLAVERTY

Star of Sweet Sixteen and Red Road – MARTIN COMPSTON

Presenting a traditional puppet show of the Ramayana with live Indonesian music – MAGS SMITH

GIFT AMU LOGOTSE AND HIS AFRICAN ADVENTURE – just one exciting event amongst our extensive programme of all-age multi-cultural story-telling

CHILDREN”S PROGRAMME
We’ve selected entertainers who really know children – and their parents. There’ll be plenty of fun activities for families to enjoy together :

With their unique blend of top quality music, entertainment and emotional and spiritual sensitivity… – FISCHY MUSIC

Live and Loopy for 2-6 year old’s – STICKY KIDS SINGALONG with Molly Muddle

Presenting their new summer show – Brand New Andrew and Fair Trade Fred – HOPSCOTCH THEATRE CO

In addition to these (and many more) child-friendly performances, you will be able to book your child into ONE supervised session per day at the festival. Sessions will be limited and places will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. You can pre-register your child by following the instructions on the website as soon as you have booked your tickets – another great reason to get them early!

YOUNG PEOPLE’S PROGRAMME
For those that are too cool for school (but still have to go!), there will be instructor-led activities and a safe, creative space where you can shake off your parents for a bit and and make some new friends :

THE RESOLUTION PROJECT – video animation workshops and short film-making for 11-18 year old’s

MEGAMIX – with youth leader-led outdoor activities including den-making, Bogie construction, Tipi building, rocket launching, extreme Frisbee and circus skills

GET INVOLVED – VOLUNTEER
We hope that everyone who comes will be an active participant in the life of the festival and there will be plenty of opportunities to join in. We are also looking for volunteers and contributors -

click here to visit the page on the website for more information on the many ways you can get involved.

SUPPORT SOLAS _ BECOME A SOLAS SAINT
Please consider giving Solas your financial support by becoming a “SOLAS SAINT”. Our goal is to get 100 people to pledge a minimum of £5 a month. If we can meet or exceed this target within the next few weeks, it will give added strength and stability to festival planning and programming. An early pledge of at least £5 a month (Gift Aid will boost its’ value), will help SOLAS (Gaelic for light), to shine…

click here to visit the Solas Saint webpage

So, be a shining example – become a SOLAS SAINT today!

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ThePROJECT presents: Solas

A new Scottish festival, launching in Summer 2010, which aims to celebrate, explore and develop connections between art, faith and justice within and beyond Scotland: 25-27th June 2010 at Wiston, Biggar* PUT THE DATES IN YOUR DIARY NOW

*subject to necessary site licences

A star is born!

You may already be aware of TheProject. Perhaps you attended the day event we hosted in June 2009 in Edinburgh. Emerging from conversations in 2008 first at Greenbelt Festival, followed up in Perth, TheProject steering group has been working for the past year or so to explore ways of beginning this journey and of taking as many people as possible with us. We have decided to launch Solas Festival and have set up a company in that name. Here’s our Mission Statement:

Solas Festival is an independently funded and managed organisation which works in Scotland to promote the celebration and exploration of relationships between faith, art and justice. Its roots lie in the Christian tradition, ecumenically understood, and it seeks to be actively hospitable to a range of faith traditions.

Solas Festival

Solas will be an independent festival, made in Scotland, and we are proud to be launching with the support of two strategic partners, Greenbelt Festival and Christian Aid Scotland.

We aim to recruit 100 Solas Saints as individual supporters (see our Giving page for details).

Our dream is that this all-age weekend will light up the Scottish festival landscape with a vivid mix of music, debate, theatre, comedy, film and visual art and will quickly establish itself as a unique location to celebrate and question our commitments to art, faith and justice within Scotland’s cultural life. Come with us on the journey.

Line-Up

Already confirmed to appear at Solas 2010 are…
Talks: Gerry Hassan, Prof John Swinton, Kathy Galloway, Chris Harvie MSP, Shaun Burnie.
Film: Screenwriter Bernard MacLaverty, Producer Eddie Dick, Actor Martin Compston.
Theatre: Hopscotch Theatre Co, Flotsam and Jetsam Theatre
Children: Fischy Music
News of an exciting music programme and lots of other details will be published very soon. Please sign up for our newsletter and you’ll be kept right up to date as confirmations come in.

Location

25-27th June 2010 at Wiston, Biggar
Wiston is about an hour south of both Glasgow and Edinburgh (also easily accessible for the north of England and Northern Ireland),10 minutes from the M74 (J13), and the 52 acre site has ample room for camping amidst spectacular and beautiful lowland countryside. Wiston is a small village which most famously has played host to the Tinto Folk Music Festival, situated in the upper Clyde Valley with the nearest towns of Lanark and Biggar.

For more information on the area contact South Lanarkshire Tourist Board on 01864 502346, or their office in Biggar 01899 221066 or Lanark 01555 661661.

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