Fionnar Fly To Wales

Fionnar – the teenage Gaelic vocal harmony group established by the Mairi Mhor Gaelic Song Fellowship for The Highland Council, will be flying the flag for Scotland and Gaelic this week at the premier music festival in Wales – the international Eisteddfod, based in Llangollen.

The group of eight Highland teenagers between the ages of 14-19 will be participating in concerts, open air performances and solo and group competitions.

Fiona MacKenzie, the Mhairi Mhor Fellow said: "The girls were absolutely delighted and honoured to be invited to represent the Council and Scotland at this festival. This is a particularly important year as it is the first year that a Gaelic group will participate at the event and we are all looking forward to it very much. The girls have done a lot of fund raising recently, including a very successful concert in Lochaber just last week and we hope that we will make a big impression on all the other participants.

"The festival also wanted the group to take part in the large Folk Ensemble classes but we are not large enough in number so instead I suggested to the organisers that the Kiltearn Fiddlers from Evanton, under the baton of Alpha Munro. Be invited. They will be arriving later in the week and we look forward to supporting each other at all the events."

Now heading towards its 59th year, the Llangollen International Eisteddfod is a world-renowned festival of music, song and dance. Competitiors from more than 50 countries come together for the week to stand side by side through music. In 2004 the festival was nominated by Terry Waite for the Nobel Peace Prize.