ORGANISING so much as a barbecue, far less a major outdoor event in Scotland is always taking a hostage to fortune, but the weather has proved particularly uncooperative in this wettest and coldest of alleged summers.

Naturally, that turn of events has coincided with the biggest number of major outdoor arts, sports and culture events ever to be staged in the Highlands & Islands, with almost uniformly soggy results.

A lucky few events (or bits of them, as in the opening day of Tartan Heart) have escaped the general soaking, but for the most part it has been a long tale of grey skies and rain.

The most severe penalty was paid by The Great Climb in the Cairngorms, a massive exercise in broadcasting logistics (and doubtless cost) that had to be abandoned altogether on the same weekend that Runrig’s Beat the Drum staked its claim to the wettest arts festival of Highland 2007.

With more outdoor extravaganzas to come, including the Connect Festival at Inveraray Castle and the National Theatre of Scotland/NVA co-production Half-Life at Kilmartin, is it too much to hope for clear skies?

Giles Sutherland’s review of the Timespan exhibition raises what is currently a vexed question for many people involved in the arts in the Highlands & Islands, and that is the direction of Highland Council’s new arts and culture infrastructure.

At the moment, it is hard to form any clear picture of what is widely feared are significant and damaging cuts as the new Area Culture Officers replace the former network of Arts Development Officers, largely because information has been notable by its absence. The recent announcement that the Council are seeking across the board budget cuts in its services simply worsens the situation.

It is time for the Council to make a clear explanation of how the new structure covering hugely enlarged areas will work, what the remit of the new officers will be, and how many personnel will be involved in each area. Northings would be more than happy to provide a platform for any such clarification.

In the absence of such facts, fears that the Council is significantly backtracking on its commitment to arts and culture – and in this year of all years – will continue to grow. We hope they prove unjustified, or at least not as bad as feared, but the present lack of clarity is damaging to all concerned.

Whatever you think of their ideas, it has to be said that Inverness councillors are not afraid to stick their heads above the parapet. No sooner has Roddy Balfour been forced to resign as chairman of the Education, Culture and Sport committee over his ill-considered remarks on Eden Court Theatre than another councillor, Kenneth MacLeod, launched an attack on that most institutional of Gaeldom’s institutions, the National Mod.

Councillor MacLeod’s claim that the official Mod “bores the pants of everyone” inevitably grabbed the headlines, and his claim that the festival had outlived its usefulness naturally rallied the troops in its defence.

The context of these condemnations was actually a proposal that what the Highlands and Islands and the Gaelic language actually needed was a modern International Celtic Festival based in Inverness that opened its doors to performers from Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and the Isle of Man, and their associated languages.

That argument will doubtless escalate, but funnily enough, apart from the Inverness base (controversial enough in itself), I thought we had such an event already. It’s called Blas, and it gets September off to a rousing start – and it comes to Inverness itself for the first time this year, as part of a planned roll-out across the Highlands.

Our main interview with Duncan Chisholm looks at his new commission for the festival, KIN, and catches up with what the Kirkhill-based fiddle maestro has been up to since we last spoke with him in early 2005. On the same theme, our From the Archive selection revisits an interview with Blas’s artistic director, Brian Ó hEadhra.

Right Lines Productions are the subject of our HITN Profile this month, and poet Rody Gorman continues his examination of the art of translation with another lengthy report, this time on a project linking Cove Park in Argyll with Israel. His Dylan translations have proved a popular target on the site, although it would be interesting to know what those visiting make of them.

Gabriela Hockney was one of the community cast taking part in the National Theatre of Scotland’s The Elgin Macbeth in June, and reports on the experience (also at some length) in Macbeth the Cheese Maker (you will have to read it to see why it bears that title).

We have another diverse and wide-ranging series of reviews lined up for the month ahead, while the news section is the place to go for screeds of information on the arts in Scotland.

Anyone putting on events should bear in mind that we will happily post their press releases and notices there, but you do have to write them and send them to us at info@hi-arts.co.uk – we don’t have the resources to go looking.

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, and other publications. He has contributed to numerous reference books, and has written books on jazz and Celtic music.