September sees the launch of the first-scale running of Blas, a festival of Gaelic arts and culture that will take place across five different areas of the Highlands. As Highland Festival discovered, running a Highland-wide festival is no simple matter, and we wish the new venture well in its first full year, following last year’s single-day pilot.

The Inverness Book Festival moves into its second year, but without the benefit of the Eden Court as a venue. Jason Rose has assembled another attractive programme that includes a number of Highland-based writers among a varied and intriguing list of guests.

Over on Islay, the jazz festival is now established as one of the most attractive weekends on the jazz calendar, with Scottish musicians prominently featured. Saxophonist Tommy Smith, who brings his new quartet to Inverness on 8 September, will link up with Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen in a one-off meeting of minds, while Irish saxophonist Michael Buckley, familiar in Scotland from his membership of the Colin Steele Quintet, will lead his own group.

A new festival kicks off on 23 & 24 September in Ullapool. Loopallu, the Little Fest in the West, will feature such high calibre bands as Hayseed Dixie, The Undertones, The Lush Rollers and Cosmic Rough Riders.  Tickets for this event can be booked online at www.thebooth.co.uk . The choice of name for this new festival is a bit of a conundrum – but we’ll put you out of your misery – it’s Ullapool spelt backwards!

For the young (and not so young) amongst us, Inverness will be hosting the 2nd year of goHI. After its success of  in 2004 as a music showcase, goHI has expanded to three days and has added some new themes – from bands to fashion, television to writing, it’s all to be found in Inverness from 8-10 September. Visit the website at www.goevents.info for more details.

Still plenty of festival activity, then, but things are not so buoyant at Highland Festival, where a proposal to link up with Highland 2007 has been rejected by the latter organisation. While not yet signalling the end, Gary Coutts, the Chairman of Highland Festival, acknowledges that the future of the event remains both unclear and uncertain at this point.

Our lead interview this month features Back of the Moon. The band have just released their third CD, the first with their new piper, Ali Hutton.  Brian Ò hEadhra, the artistic coordinator of the festival, describes the making of Blas, and Alistair Peebles reports on the latest doings of two Orkney-based Colins – violin-maker Colin Tulloch and visual artist Colin Kirkpatrick.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, preparations continue for the new look we plan to bring to the Journal. All being well, that will happen next month. In the meantime, though, keep checking back for the features, news and reviews that we will add throughout the month.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor

Kenny Mathieson lives and works in Boat of Garten, Strathspey. He studied American and English Literature at the University of East Anglia, graduating with a BA (First Class) in 1978, and a PhD in 1983. He has been a freelance writer on various arts-related subjects since 1982, and contributes to the Inverness Courier, The Herald, The Scotsman, The List, Times Educational Supplement Scotland, and other publications. He has contributed to numerous reference books, and has written books on jazz and Celtic music.