Isle of Eigg, 15-16 June 2007

Angus Grant, Jr, and Luke Plumb of Shooglenifty.

THERE ARE few if any Scottish islands that couldn’t be described as inspiring places to visit, but a weekend on Eigg celebrating ten years of community ownership must be among the all-time top ways of doing your soul a favour. Even if your body – and in particular your liver – wouldn’t necessarily thank you for the experience.

It wasn’t just the quality, intensity and duration of the party that made the anniversary memorable, but the decade’s worth of collective achievement underpinning the festivities, from the original, Scotland-wide fundraising drive, which captured the popular imagination as the 1997 election approached, to the imminent switch-on of the all-renewable, locally generated electricity supply that will soon power every home in Eigg.

The intervening years have seen the island’s formerly declining population climb by 25 percent to 83, which includes several young families, with a similar reversal in the condition of its key infrastructure, from housing improvements and croft creation to the construction of a new pier, café and shop.

The once-dilapidated community hall, meanwhile, reopened in June 2005 after a complete renovation, and again served as the main hub of this year’s anniversary shenanigans.

In other words, despite a smattering of negative press since the buyout (of variable veracity, depending on who you talk to), Eigg’s first landlord-free decade has overwhelmingly been that rarest of modern phenomena, an ongoing good-news story – one where the erstwhile underdog protagonists not only won their first key battle, but have continued to wield that hard-earned autonomy astutely, imaginatively and fruitfully.

Or, as one island resident put it – quoted in the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust’s handsomely-produced 10th anniversary leaflet, detailing developments since 1997 – “On Eigg it is possible for people to achieve something from nothing. I think this is more possible here than anywhere else I know.”

In an age where we’re so widely encouraged to feel powerless, this belief in such possibilities, which Eigg initially symbolised and has since increasingly embodied, communicates itself to visitors as potently as the island’s jewel-like natural beauty.

And for those who might take issue with that “nothing”, while Eigg’s upswing in fortunes has so far cost over £2.5 million, from a wide variety of public and private sources, fully three-fifths of that was the original purchase price, and the Heritage Trust is now operationally self-sufficient, based on several regular local income streams, although further new projects will still need additional funds.

It’s thus fair to say that the shades of Keith Schellenberg and Maruma seemed far, far away as some 300-400 celebrants gathered in the sunshine, pitching camp against the uniquely imposing backdrop of An Sgurr, the 1300-foot volcanic ridge rising above the harbour.

Fleeing the inclement midsummer weather prevailing almost everywhere else in Britain, boatload after boatload arrived, large and small, from Mallaig, Arisaig, Glenuig and Skye, unloading passengers and cases of beer in seemingly equal profusion.

The annual Eigg anniversary bash has always been billed as a ceilidh, rather than a festival per se, retaining that definitive emphasis on all-round conviviality, as opposed to staged entertainment.

So while there was a fine programme of local and visiting bands up at the hall on Friday and Saturday night, the music and the audience were as often to be found outside in the sun at the pierside tea-room (cum bar) – looking back at the misty mainland from a very contended distance – or around a well-stoked campfire as a new day dawned.

With many of the same visitors travelling from far and wide – and by hook or by crook – to attend each June, the happy hubbub of reunion was augmented this time by a larger than usual wave of Eigg “virgins”, attracted by the extra advance buzz of the ten-year milestone.

Headline attractions on the main-stage bill were Shooglenifty, themselves returning for their third or fourth visit since they performed on the night the buyout took place: June 12th 1997 – or “Independence Day”, as it’s widely known.

Come Saturday night, of course, everyone was well onto island time, and the betting was wide open – not least among the band itself – as to whether they’d make it onstage before midnight. In the event, it was past 1am, but then they must have played for a good two hours, with virtually every single soul on the island crammed into the hall by that point – and well-nigh all of them jigging like lunatics.

Embellished by the incandescent guest vocals of Kaela Rowan, the band upped the warp-factor to suitably stratospheric heights, bestriding the musical spectrum from rave-like euphoria to art-noise brutality, exemplifying again their seemingly inexhaustible ability to reinvent even their oldest tunes.

Few could have tapped that mood and built it even higher – for another several hours – more expertly than DJ Dolphin Boy, another Eigg regular, whose witty musical splicings and viscerally funky grooves kept many revellers dancing well past the point where they should have been able to stand.

The still-booming beats to which many at last fell asleep in their tents, at some point on Sunday morning, might seem at odds with Eigg’s reputation for tranquillity – and there are, indeed, always a few bewildered-looking birdwatchers around at anniversary time – but were the only fitting close to a truly epic Saturday night.

Other honourable mentions for services to entertainment over the weekend must go to Highland favourites Daimh, both for their storming set on Friday and their mainstay contribution to the tea-room sessions; to feelgood funk/blues/Latin outfit Ruby and the Emeralds, a none-too distant runner-up to Shooglenifty in the danceability stakes, and to native Eigg combo Massacre Cave, who made a heroic, death-or-glory stand against the prevailing tide of diddly music with their ear-splitting, bestially snarling brand of shred-metal rock.

Last and loudest plaudits, however, are due to all the people of Eigg, for welcoming and hosting such a – relatively – massive invasion with such comprehensive aplomb. From the workers in the shop decoding “miraculously” incomprehensible requests for more carry-out come closing-time, to those in the tea-room scouring the cupboards to cook up another pot of something – anything – to feed the hungry hordes still queuing at the counter: we salute you. And we’ll see you next year.

© Sue Wilson, 2007