A BUSY couple of weeks are in store over in Argyll this month, with the Cowalfest kicking in on 5 October for ten days, and the Royal National Mod (Am Mòd Nàiseanta Rìoghail) taking place there from 13-21 October. Two of Scotland’s leading cultural commentators, Brian Morton and Michael Russell, just happen to reside in that neck of the woods, and both are featured in Northings this month.

The countdown to Highland 2007 is now well underway, and some flesh is finally being put on the bones of the programme as we inch closer to the beginning of the whole extravaganza. Highland 2007 have an on-line events guide on their website which will be updated as new events are announced across all of the categories.

The big one so far is the announcement that Runrig will be playing a major outdoor concert on the banks of Loch Ness in August. The event, which is going under the title Beat the Drum, will run in association with the Blas Festival at Borlum Farm, Drumnadrochit. Blas will organise the supporting acts for the day, and will use the occasion to launch their own programme. The Gaelic music and language festival enjoyed another successful outcome in September, and will add Inverness to the seven areas they already cover for 2007.

Dogstar Theatre are on the road again as this issue goes on-line, and we talk to their joint artistic director and the writer of their latest production, Hamish MacDonald, in this month’s lead interview.

Tosg Gaelic Theatre company have just concluded a tour with their latest work, and are the subject of this month’s Highlands & Islands Theatre Network profile. Our thanks to a harried Simon Mackenzie, and also to an equally harried Roxana Meechan for her report from Sutherland in the latest ArtsFolk contribution. Both overcame considerable logistical and timing difficulties in getting their copy to us in time.

Inverness has its third annual Book Festival in the first week of the month (3-6 October – see director Jason Rose’s introduction), and the organisers have taken the unusual step of not running events into the weekend. It will be interesting to see how the public respond to that arrangement.

Still on books, Alistair Peebles forsook Orkney for a trip even farther north to Shetland last month for the Wordplay festival, and reports on both the festival and the new set-up on the arts scene there. We hope to bring you a piece by writer-in-residence Susanna Jones later this month.

Also coming up is an interview with Irish troubadour Andy White ahead of his latest Highlands & Islands tour, a further dispatch from visual artist Jon Macleod in Macedonia, and the usual selection of news and reviews throughout the month ahead.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor, Northings

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 Scotsman, The Herald, 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.