Unique and boutique, The Insider Festival returns for it’s 3rd year. With a capacity of just 750 sharing 30 acres of camping on the banks of the Spey on the Edwardian country Estate of Inshriach House.

A strand of programming featuring top performers and a major new commission celebrating the culture of Scotland’s islands will be at the heart of this year’s Blas Festival, which has established itself as the premier event celebrating all that is good about the Gaelic language and culture of the Highlands.

As part of the ‘Wooden it be nice’ craft fair at The Stables in Cromarty this weekend (28 & 29 May 2011) there will be a fundraising art sale which includes works by some of the finest Highland artists.

Scottish Opera invites audiences to share in the Company’s passion for exploring the world of opera in a busy new season with eight new shows, two classic revivals, six collaborations and 105 performances in 43 venues over the next twelve months.

Castle Gallery, Inverness, will be opening their new exhibition of paintings and original prints by Mychael Barratt and Trevor Price on 28 May. The exhibition will run until 18 June 2011.

The May 2011 newsletter from the HIE Creative Industries team is now available to download.

Eugenia Vronskaya’s latest body of work will be shown at Kilmorack Gallery (near Beauly) from 5th August to 3rd September 2011.

Details of another two Fashion workshops taking place in Inverness have been announced as part of this year’s goNORTH event.

Highland ceramicist Allison Weightman recently appeared in the BBC 2 series ‘Show me the Monet’ which has followed the fortunes of amateur and professional artists from all over the United Kingdom, as they battle it out for a spot at the Show Me the Monet grand exhibition and sale at the Royal College of Art in London, where members of the public and the art world alike will bid to buy the best of the art work on show.

Macphail Theatre, Ullapool, 21 May 2011