With less than a month until Perthshire Amber – the Dougie MacLean Festival, the festival team are making last minute preparations and looking forward to welcoming visitors from throughout the world to join the ten day music and outdoor festival, which kicks off on the 28th of October.

Musician Dougie MacLean OBE, best known for his anthem ‘Caledonia’ as well as ‘The Gael’, explains why it’s a thrilling time of year:

“I feel a real mixture of excitement and nerves as the festival draws near.  We have lots to do, finalising lighting and sound for all the venues as well as rehearsing, but it’s also a busy time for ticket sales so our whole team is working flat out to bring it all together.  We’ve been running the festival for seven years, but every year we grow it or add in a new element – this year we have really gone for it with the development of the Outdoors Programme, which we are delighted with.  We’ve also added to our brilliant variety of venues which now range from an iron-age crannog to village halls, town halls, cathedral, castles and concert hall! The leaves starting to turn always signal to me that it’s nearly Amber time – and I simply can’t wait!”

Tickets are selling fast with a couple of the concerts already sold out and others nearing capacity, remaining highlights for this year include:

o   Dougie MacLean with Beoga (Ireland), Saturday 29 October, Blairgowrie Town Hall

o   The Village Hall Concerts, Sunday 30 October, Clunie/Meikelour/Caputh Halls

o   Dougie MacLean and Archie Fisher, Monday 31 October, Blair Castle

o   Dougie MacLean and Braebach, Tuesday 1 November, Pitlochry Town Hall

o   Dougie MacLean with Strings and Choirs, Friday 4 November, Perth Concert Hall

o   Dougie MacLean and Friends (Jimmie MacGregor, Kris Drever, Phil Cunningham, Heidi Talbot and Moishe’s Bagel), Saturday 5 November, Perth Concert Hall.

And that’s not all, The Royal Dunkeld Hotel (renamed Amber Central for ten days of the festival) will play host to Open Mic sessions and early evening Cabaret Amber.  With the addition of the Scottish Deli Songbus touring the region, there will be no escaping the wonderful music of Perthshire Amber.

Then there’s the truly intriguing Amber Outdoors programme with the Beaver Watch Walk at Bamff House, Highland Horse Trek, Landrover Safari to 3,000 feet! and Come & Try… Shinty (with the famed Scottish player Ronald Ross) – among a host of opportunities that would be hard to find at any other festival.

A real boost was received for the festival this week, when it was given a glowing preview from Martin Buzacott from Australian Broadcasting Corporation who said:

“Perthshire Amber is Scotland’s most fascinating festival by far!…combining as it does the rich threads of music new and old with nature, history and a sense of adventure … all in beautiful, autumnal Perthshire”.

To book tickets for Scotland’s most fascinating festival go to www.perthshireamber.com or call the booking hotline on 01350 724281

Source: Perthshire Amber