Welcome To HebCelt

The Stornoway festival’s new director paints an irresistible picture of a blended musical family, together on a journey of Celtic discoveries

- PAUL FISHER COCKBURN

HEBCELT director Graham MacCallum says he'd describe the festival on the Isle of Lewis as a family affair-friendly, welcoming and inclusive.

"We're really lucky that half of our audience come from off-island every year, and the local community which is really at the heart of the festival every year welcomes everyone.

"There's a very vibrant, inclusive atmosphere here. And that spills over into all aspects of the festival; it's like one big family."

The inaugural Hebridean Celtic Festival took place in 1996, meaning that last year's event - HebCelt 2022 was their coronavirus-delayed 25th anniversary. Remarkably, many on the festival board and among the staff are still either founding members or have been involved with the festival for years, if not decades.

"My own involvement started in 2008 as a volunteer with the tech team," Graham says. "That's part of the family element of HebCelt - pretty much everyone on the board has come from the volunteer cohort. They got involved at a younger age, and have worked their way up through to where they are now. We've all got a long history with the event."

During the last few years, Graham worked very closely with previous festival director - and founding member - Caroline Maclennan.

HebCelt 2023 marks his first festival in charge, but don't expect any major changes in the festival's focus.

"At its inception we were the Hebridean Celtic Festival," he says. "Over the years, that quite naturally became HebCelt, which perhaps gave us slight licence to programme more broadly - but, at its core, it's a Celtic music festival with the islands' Gaelic traditions and cultures at its heart, and that's absolutely a core continuation for me.