NORTHINGS: Fiona, you said in an earlier conversation we had in the run up to the finale of Highland 2007 that you felt that people were only really getting to grips with the idea of a themed year as it ended – is that still your feeling?

FIONA HAMPTON: I did feel that was happening, yes, and I feel in many cases it is only now that people are really seeing what it was all about. People’s perceptions tend to be directed by what they know, and they know conventional festivals. We were a very different thing – we ran for a year over a huge region and with six different strands to the programme, and a lot of the criticism we have had has come from individuals who are very passionate about their own areas of culture in the region, whether it was the Gaels or visual arts or whatever, and didn’t feel it delivered enough for them. That is probably true from their point of view, and to be honest I don’t think we could have fulfilled what they wanted in their specific area of interest, because our focus was on a whole region and multiple strands.

N: One of the areas that does seem to have worked well has been the community programme – even some of your harshest critics have acknowledged that a lot of good things happened as result of the funding you were able to push into local groups and communities.

FH: Absolutely. You have to come back to what Highland 2007 tried to do, which was to showcase and build on a lot of what was already happening, so it was natural to go back to people who do this all year round in the Highlands and Islands and add to what they were able to do. It was an obvious thing for us to do.

Monsters at the Launch Event, January

The whole shape of the themed year was about allowing all of the different cultural stands and sectors to showcase themselves, and the majority of the grants went towards doing that. Yes, we added some events of our own instigation to the calendar, but in general it was the organisers and the people of the Highlands & Islands, working with national agencies and promoters when they could, that put on the bulk of it.

Again, I think that is something that people didn’t quite get – there is a big difference between a festival programme that a central body commissions and makes happen in a specific moment, and the kind of thing we were doing, which was essentially a brokering role that would allow the people already creating things here to show what they could do.

We acted in that brokering role for various organisations like the Scottish Arts Council and Community Scotland to try to channel their resources and their desire to get help to the right people on the ground. Sometimes that support came in funding and sometimes it came in other ways.

N: Given the breadth of your remit, and to be honest, the rather plucked-out-the-air nature of the original idea to have a Highland Year of Culture, did you feel you were handed a workable proposition?

FH: I think we had a strong product in the Highlands and their culture, and maybe we had an easier task than Homecoming Scotland will face in 2009, because there are even more diverse aspects to that year. There may be lots of debate about what the culture of the Highlands is, but people are passionate about it, and what I don’t think we managed to achieve was getting people to see the big picture rather than just their own area of interest.

I do feel it was workable, though, and it worked best when the general public got behind it. A lot of the events that generated the most controversy and criticism – the opening and closing events in Inverness, for example, where I thought the Highlands did themselves proud, or the Elton John concert in Inverness – were the ones that were most popular with the general public, and also drew the most media attention. Sometimes you have to just be popular. Why should people in the Highlands have to travel to Glasgow or Edinburgh to see particular artists? Why can’t we put them on here?

The Elgin Macbeth, June

N: Again, a couple of weeks ago you said you almost wished you could do the whole thing again with a better general understanding on the ground of what it was all about.

FH: I do feel that, yes, and I would also make a plea to the local media not to undermine the area. It is hard to attract attention or investment when the people you are trying to reach only see the controversy in the local press. 50,000 people watched the final fireworks on Kessock Bridge, but most of the publicity for the event focused on the arguments in the council over funding, and the positive aspects of it got buried in the negative coverage. I’m not having a media bashing session here, but both sides need to be reported.

N: One of the areas where I felt it didn’t really fulfil the stated aim was in taking the culture of the Highlands & Islands out to the rest of Scotland and beyond – do you agree that was the case?

FH: Yes, we would love to have done more of that, and the fact that we didn’t was down to both resources and finance. We had a small team with a finite amount of time and money, and in the end we just didn’t have the resources to capitalise on all of the potential opportunities we had. And again, it was also difficult to get people to grasp the concept of the themed year and make the most of any resources we did commit to it. It was a year-one decision, if you like, and if we were doing it again we might approach it differently.

N: How about the complaint that major events like the opening and closing events or the Outsider Festival were farmed out to Unique Events in Edinburgh rather than giving locally-based promoters a chance?

FH: The process was very straightforward, and was done through normal Highland Council channels of tender. The specification was for a company to design and deliver a series of events that would be capable of attracting international programme funding from Event Scotland, which at that point was limited to Glasgow and Edinburgh – we were then eligible only for regional funding as things stood. We had 47 notes of interest, most of which were from event management companies only interested in delivering and not in designing the event. Ultimately there were three contenders, one based in the Highlands, and Unique presented what we judged to be the best tender. It was as straightforward as that.

Fireworks on Kessock Bridge, January 2008

N: How about the standard of the new work that was created in the year – my feeling was that there was a lot of good work achieved, and many companies and organisations were enabled to do more than might otherwise have been the case, but I can’t really think of a memorable major new piece of work that people will talk about for years to come.

FH: To be honest that was really up to the cultural organisations. We were not directly commissioning work, and anything that would fulfil that description would have come from the cultural organisations and companies themselves. There was a huge amount of new work created – I suppose it depends on what you mean by a major work.

N: Well, no Black Watch, for example, although we did get to see it in Dingwall.

FH: No, but how many times does a Black Watch happen? Something like that is very rare, and as you say, we did get to see it in the Highlands. I loved The Elgin Macbeth as well. There was a lot of good quality new work created, and I can’t thing of anyone who got money just to do the same as they did last year.

N: What do you hope will be the legacy of H2007?

FH: I very much hope that it will be a springboard for further investment in the Highlands and Islands. It took a lot of ambition and courage to do this in the first place, and cultural activity is always a soft target for criticism, but Highland Council were very positive about the year, and recognised the potential for future investment it has generated. There were a lot of good things achieved in the course of Highland 2007, and I hope that can now be taken forward, and it will prove to be a springboard for more investment in the Highlands and in Highland culture.

Black Watch, May

N: Any regrets about taking this job on?

FH: No, absolutely not. I have some disappointment over some aspects of it – I think the media could have done more to help get the public behind a lot more of the smaller events, and seen the bigger picture quicker. I think a promotional opportunity to raise general awareness may not have been taken. But otherwise, no regrets.

N: Finally, Fiona, when is the assessment that Glasgow University are undertaking due to be published?

FH: That should be published in September, and will assess the hard facts and figures and economic impact of the event, and will also look at local cultural stakeholders and focus groups, and a lot of individuals who have a stake in arts and culture in the Highlands.

Fiona Hampton is the Director of Highland 2007.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2008