THE SIGHS of relief when a fortunate weather window allowed the Monster Street party that launched Highland 2007 in Inverness to go ahead pretty much as planned must have come close to rivalling the high winds which threatened the event on the night.

The loss of their high profile opening would have been unthinkable, both for Fiona Hampton and her team and for Unique Events, already smarting from the cancellation of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay.

Highland 2007 itself, and the many events taking place under its voluminous umbrella, will start to gain momentum as we move toward the summer. The announcement that Elton John will headline the new Inverness festival will certainly please his many admirers, and bring in plenty of visitors, but this journal will be more interested in seeing events emerge with rather more direct Highlands and Islands credentials, as they surely will.

Before we get too self-congratulatory about the way things are shaping up in our region, however, Georgina Coburn cautions us that all may not be as the prevailing rhetoric might suggest when it comes to cultural opportunities in her Speakout piece this month.

Writer Katharine Stewart is the subject of our main interview, conducted by HI~Arts Writing Development Officer, Peter Urpeth. Peter was also the man behind the recent HI~Arts short story competition, deservedly won by Alison Flett from a competitive and pleasing diverse field of entries. Read her winning story on site.

Taynuilt-based Ballet West provide our Highlands & Islands Theatre Network profile this month, although there is no ArtsFolk feature. It was the turn of Nairn on the rota, but Arts Officer Shona Arthur was on holiday until late January, and asked if she could postpone until later in the sequence. Generous to a fault, we agreed.

When we interviewed Aidan O’Rourke back in 2005, he had been nominated as best instrumentalist in the Scots Trad Music Awards that year, and had recently formed a new trio with Kris Drever and Martin Green. He didn’t win on that occasion, but he did go on to pick up the same award in Fort William in December, and Lau are about to release their debut CD. All of that seemed a good excuse to feature the interview in our From the Archive section.

Finally, don’t forget that you can have your say in the Culture Bill consultation, and keep checking back to Northings for more news, reviews and features.

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.