Dougie MacLean welcomes the World to his Perthshire Amber Festival
Over 8000 music fans will flock to Perthshire over the next ten days as the Perthshire Amber Festival begins today Friday 25 October. Legendary singer songwriter
Dougie MacLean, who wrote Scotland’s unofficial anthem ‘Caledonia’ and proudly collected a lifetime achievement from the BBC Folk Awards earlier this year, is the festival host and will welcome over 300 of his musician friends to perform. The festival launches tonight when Karine Polwart and Dougie MacLean play a sell-out concert in the grand ‘Caledonia Hall’ of Scotland’s smallest distillery Edradour. The festival takes place in 25 venues across Perthshire including Perth Concert Hall, Methven Castle, Blair Castle, Murthly Castle Chapel and Dunkeld Cathedral.
Headline acts including award winning songwriter Karine Polwart, Capercaillie’s Karen Matheson and AMWWF (Anderson, McGinty, Webster, Ward and Fisher) and an exciting new collaboration known as The MacLean Project described as “...a brilliant weave of great songs and skilled instrumental magic” which brings together Dougie MacLean, Ross Ainslie, Sorren Maclean, Gordon Maclean, Chris Marra, Laura Beth Salter, Jamie MacLean, Hannah Fisher and Pete Garnett, who are all among the impressive line-up.
Thousands of music fans travel to the festival, which has established itself as an important part of the Scottish festival calendar, with visitors coming from 23 countries to enjoy the best in Scottish, folk and world music and a very warm Perthshire welcome.
Dougie MacLean explains:
“We’ve been planning this festival for nearly a year now and the team have been working flat out for the past few months to bring it all together, the anticipation has been mounting – and I just can’t wait for it all to begin. We’ve got some really exciting talent appearing this year, this is the ninth Perthshire Amber and I think the line-up is one of our strongest. I am delighted to welcome so many friends, new and old, to my home region and it’s great that those who can’t come along are able to tune in and be part of the wider audience via Butterstone TV. If anyone hasn’t got tickets yet, come along at see us at Perth Concert Hall on Friday 1 November – it’s going to be a fantastic night and yes, I promise to sing Caledonia!”
The packed 2013 programme also includes Amber Discoveries which includes a series of walks, talks, workshops, the Perthshire Amber SongBus (Mon 28 Oct and Fri 1 Nov, 10am) and the ever popular Decorated Wheelbarrow Procession (Sat 26 Oct 11am). This element of the programme has been developed to truly encourage visitors to get involved in and appreciate Scotland’s natural bounty and wonderful landscape as well as its culture and heritage. This year’s workshops include making skincare products from natural ingredients, bee keeping, group singing and various musical instrument masterclasses.
In addition to the audiences at the concerts, a world-wide audience will be tuning in from home as the festival is broadcast live via Butterstone.tv the live streaming was developed in 2011 and people can watch all the main concerts live during the festival.
Dougie MacLean OBE is one of Scotland's finest songwriter-composers, internationally renowned for his song 'Caledonia', music for 'Last of the Mohicans' and inspired performances worldwide - from New York's Carnegie Hall to London's Festival Theatre and The Sydney Opera House.
MacLean's songs have been covered by Paolo Nutini, Amy MacDonald, Ronan Keating, Mary Black, Frankie Miller, Cara Dillon, Kathy Mattea and many other top performers. He's recently received two prestigious Tartan Clef Awards, a place in the Scottish Music Hall of Fame and an OBE in the 2011 New Year Honours list. ‘Caledonia’ was recently voted one of Scotland’s best loved songs on the ITV Show ‘Scotland’s Greatest Album’. Earlier this year Dougie was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to song writing in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2013.