Tobermory, Isle of Mull, 24-26 April 2009

The Raggaels

GOING TO festivals and camping are two of my favourite things in life. The two together, not so much – normally camping at a festival means being stuck in a big muddy field, tripping over your neighbour’s guy ropes as soon as you come out of the tent door, and a distinct lack of proper toilets and hot showers.

Not so at the Isle of Mull Music Festival – the festival is based around the hotels and public houses of Tobermory, and so the only camping available was on a proper campsite… sounds like my kind of festival!

My friends have been over to Mull several times now for the fesitval, but this was my first time to Mull, let alone to the Festival. The focus is firmly on Scottish Traditional music with a number of bands playing in different venues over the three nights. I arrived in Tobermory a few days before the festival began, and there was a definite buzz about the town as the weekend approached.

However, the only sign that a festival was about to take place were the very few posters put up around the town by the different venues. There no details or information about the bands, no times for the bands or details about what venues children were allowed into – it was very much a case of turn up and hope for the best!

On the rather rainy Friday evening, the opening night of the festival, my first stop was the MacDonald Arms. The main bar was packed out, a ceilidh band were well into their set and people were dancing mini reels while they waited at the bar. After a quick dance, I headed to the lounge bar to catch up with some friends who had managed to find a seat, but before long the band had finished their main set, and came through to the lounge where they set up in the corner and started all over again!

While outside for a breath of fresh air, I got speaking to some locals about the festival. Their views in the main were although they enjoyed the festival, they felt in recent years it had become less about the music and more about the hotels and bars trying to draw as large a crowd as possible, and that more people were treating it as a drunken weekend away.

It’s such a shame that a festival like Mull should become viewed as a money making machine; in this day and age of huge multi-million pound festivals that have become so commercialised, it would be a refreshing change to escape to a festival that was purely about the music. And the advice of the locals? Enjoy the festival, but come back any other weekend in the year to enjoy some proper music.

Next stop was the Mishnish Hotel, probably the main venue over the weekend. The lounge bar had a ceilidh band playing all weekend, while the main bar had a variety of bands performing. As the main bar was so packed out, the lounge was my venue of choice for the evening. Although busy, there was still enough room to get up for a dance, and not so loud that you couldn’t have a chat with the people you were sitting next to.

By the end of the evening, my feet were sore from dancing and my voice was hoarse from singing and talking to new friends. And this was only the first night!

By the time Saturday came around, the sun had appeared and chased the rain (and midgies) away. After rustling up a nice cooked breakfast, and enjoying a lovely hot shower, it was time to head back into Tobermory. Taking a walk along Main Street, I began to understand why the locals I spoke to yesterday evening held the views they did. Although only lunchtime, there were large crowds of people outside the main festival venues, drinks in hand and it was clear that it wasn’t their first of the day.

The Mishnish was again my venue of choice for the Saturday evening. By the time I arrived around 7pm, the place was already mobbed, with a strict ‘one out, one in’ policy on the door. The Shenanigins, a band from Blairgowrie, were just finishing their set – although the band do write some of their own material, the vast majority of songs they played were covers of other artists – with anything from Johnny Cash to Amy Winehouse!

And this seemed to be a recurring theme throughout the evening – although covers of popular songs will always go down well in a pub setting, it would have been nice for the bands to play more of their own material. The Raggaels, who closed the festival, were guilty of this too – despite having been together for well over ten years and having a good few albums of their own!

Overall, although I had a good time at the festival, it just didn’t live up to expectations. Even the friends I had gone with said it just wasn’t up to the standard of previous years, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy myself more at one of the many other festivals throughout the summer. If only all the others came with proper campsites…

© Elizabeth Sinclair, 2009

Links

• Isle of Mull Festival