St Andrew’s Day spectacular announced for Inverness

The Highland Council has announced details of a St Andrew’s Day celebration which will take place in Inverness on Thursday (30th November).

Sponsored by the Scottish Executive, the Inverness event will be a nine hour festival of music, dance, film and visual projection in Falcon Square from 1-10pm with a “One Scotland. Many Cultures” theme.

Video Artist John McGeoch of Evanton based Arts in Motion has been commissioned to produce a film montage featuring residents and the cultural diversity of modern Inverness, which will be projected on to the walls of Falcon Square. The montage will feature pupils of Crown Primary School, Inverness and visitors to Falcon Square.

Crown Primary School pupils have been chosen in recognition of their success in winning the City’s Junior Highland Games and the warmth of welcome they have given to children from other countries who have moved to their school.

Arrangements have been made for the giant eagle sculpture created by Highland based Sculptor Sam Barlow to be erected in the school playground on Wednesday and the children’s faces will be captured by a camera located in the eagle’s eye. The images will then be edited overnight ready for projection at the show on Thursday.

Also screened will be extracts from the Highland Muslim Educational Association's new film ‘I'm quite unique’ which sees young people of many different origins working together to create a multicultural fashion show in Inverness and this year’s City of Inverness Highland Games. 

The event will start at 1pm with a 3-hour live broadcast of Moray Firth Radio’s “Knoxy in the Afternoon” show commencing starring Diane Knox who will be encouraging locals to come down to Falcon Square and get themselves filmed by Arts in Motion.

Host DJ Andi “Candoo” Stephen will then take over and Andi will have the job of attempting to play dance music from as many countries as possible throughout the evening. Appeals have been made to local ethnic community groups to spread the word that everyone is invited to bring their favourite CDs along to the party and among the many countries already lined up to be heard on St Andrew’s day are Russia, Poland, Latvia. Lithuania and Chile. The aim is to see how many countries are represented when the International Juke Box closes at the end of the night. 

The music of Scotland will provide the heart of the show that will feature local band Schiehallion supported by youth bands Twist of Fate, Fade2Black and Deviate. The Inverness Traditional Music Programme’s TMC Folk, The Inverness Scottish Country Dancers and the Mean Feat Breakdance Team will also be performing.

Highland Councillor Angus Dick, Vice Chairman of Inverness Area, Education, Culture and Sport Committee said: “The Scottish Executive challenged us to try and make the Inverness event as memorable as possible and with the support of the many of the members of the various communities who now call Inverness their home who have got involved, I think we have succeeded. There is tremendous excitement building about this new St Andrew’s Day event and the “One Scotland Many Cultures” theme has certainly captured the imagination of a lot of folk.”

Scotland’s celebrations for St Andrew's Day 2006 will be jointly hosted by all six Scottish cities and involve thousands of young people across Scotland. Events will also be held in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling following the First Minister's pledge to raise awareness of and encourage involvement in celebration of St Andrew's Day.