PICTURES: St Duthac Book and Arts Festival in Tain and Easter Ross opens an exciting new chapter for area's cultural scene
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THE first chapter of the new St Duthac Book and Arts Festival has won the support of the local community with its five-day programme in Tain and the Easter Ross peninsula.
The day after writer and BBC journalist Sally Magnusson’s live and online book event at the Carnegie Lodge Hotel closed the festival on Monday night, one of the organisers, Coral Allan, mentioned that there had been a comments book in the pop-up bookshop on the High Street throughout.
“We’ve had such positive feedback,” she said. “About the shop, about the events. And experienced book festival-goers have just been so complimentary about everything that’s happened –the programme and the variety.
“Someone has written: ‘It’s the best thing to happen in Tain in a very long time!’”
Another said: “There’s a terrific buzz about all the events we’ve attended. The speakers have all been wonderful. Long may it continue in the future.”
It was a festival that also aimed to help those attending extend their knowledge of both the town and surrounding area as well as the art and artists flourishing there too.
Part of the art trail included the Studio Smith gallery and The Art Room and art was also on show at the Seaboard Centre.
“They had a pop-up bookshop and just walking down and seeing people looking in the window and going in, it felt as if the whole town came alive. And after the past two years as well when everything has been closed and it’s been depressing."
Artists from the surrounding area – Bill Shannon, Rosie MacKenzie from Inver, Sheenagh Harrison on the Tarbat Peninsula and Tain artist Moira MacBeath – all had work on display in the pop-up bookshop on the High Street.
A variety of venues were used including the bookshop – which proved popular with many people during its residency.
One of the organisers, Caroline Cameron, picked out one comment from the book: “Another comment is ‘Such a lovely place to visit with music and even an elderly gentleman dancing! I could have stayed all day’. Another one was ‘Great buzz, we have come away with a bag of books, old and new’ – that was someone visiting from Sussex!
“It was an empty building and the owner gave us access and free rein basically to do what we wanted.
“So we’ve had lots of donated books. We ran a market in April to raise awareness and funds to go towards the festival. We have also partnered up with Waterstones with supplies of new books and lots from our authors – and our local writers.
“And all but three of the events featured local writers. We’ve got such a talented community here.We had three book launches – Helen Sedgwick, CC Hutton and Laura Kirk, with her illustrated book, she was our youngest.”
Talking about how the first festival went, a group from the six organisers –Coral Allan, Caroline Cameron, Mary Fleming, Dave Macrae, Catherine Williams and Francis Wood – were thrilled with the way things had gone.
Frances said: “March was originally chosen to coincide with St Duthac Day.”
But Covid forced a postponement to September.
Yet it’s a change that seems likely to become permanent, as September has proved a good time to run it, the organisers believe.
“We have to wait for feedback from the community, but we have had lots of positive comments as well as constructive comments that would help us to improve it for next year. One of them has been to include a shopping basket on the website to make it easier for people to buy more tickets!”
She also paid tribute on behalf of the team to locals who have supported the event: “We would like to thank people for buying into this and the community’s support – buying tickets and coming to the events and into the shop – and to our volunteers. We couldn’t have done it without them, or the businesses and venues, the artists and musicians who were involved. The whole community, really. And, of course, our funders.”
Writer, journalist and BBC Scotland newsreader Sally Magnusson had been invited to attend in March.
Coral said: “When Frances invited her, she jumped at the chance. When the festival was revived for September and Frances contacted her again she said immediately ‘Yes, I’ll be there’. She was very supportive from the outset.”
The festival held events across the Easter Ross Peninsula – Tain, the Seaboard Centre, the Mercat Centre at Milton, Edderton, Inver and Nigg and the Tarbat Discovery Centre at Portmahomack.
Local writer Helen Sedgwick – who launched the second book, Where The Missing Gather, in her Burrowhead Mysteries crime series, said: “It has been a lovely few days in Tain!”
Her book originally came out in July but because of the pandemic there were no live events happening then.
She joked: “It’s a little bit sad to have a book out in the middle of a global pandemic! You can’t engage with people or celebrate with your readers.”
So the rescheduled event was eagerly awaited.
She said: “My event went brilliantly, I was thrilled. There was a big audience. People were so enthusiastic and I thought there was the most wonderful warmth. My event was in the Carnegie Lodge Hotel, which is a beautiful venue. There were lots of people I didn’t know in the audience, but also a real community spirit, I felt. I enjoyed it more than many events I’ve done because it felt so friendly.
“They had a pop-up bookshop and just walking down and seeing people looking in the window and going in, it felt as if the whole town came alive. And after the past two years as well when everything has been closed and it’s been depressing.
“In a small community when everything is shut, it begins to feel like a ghost town and it was just the complete opposite of that. Everyone was excited.”
Arts festival offers wealth of choice on maiden outing
