For a decade, Skye Live Festival has been redefining Scotland’s music scene, blending ancient tradition with contemporary beats against the breathtaking backdrop of the Inner Hebrides.
From humble beginnings in 2015 to becoming a sold-out success in the years that followed, the festival has helped usher in a new wave of Scottish trad-electronic fusion.
The festival has seen traditional bands like Sian and Talisk, alongside electronic powerhouses such as Denis Sulta and Optimo (Espacio) descend on Portree in Skye to perform in front of music lovers from near and far.
And this year, the event is celebrating its 10th birthday – a feat they never thought they’d reach when it all began.
‘In 2015, it was a total leap of faith: we had no roadmap and no guarantees,’ said founder and co-festival director Niall Munro.
‘For the first five, six years, we never sold out and we never made a penny. We had nights where we were running around putting up posters ourselves, sending emails at midnight, trying to get people to take a chance on what we were doing. It was a real labour of love. But we just weren’t willing to let it go.
Festival directors Niall Munro and Michael Pelligrotti.
‘While Scottish traditional and electronic dance beats may seem completely at odds, there is something primal about both of them. They’re both beat-driven and there’s lots of energy. The loops in trad are actually quite similar to electronic music. You can kind of just get lost in the music and where better to get lost in one of the most beautiful places in the world.
‘Now it’s the 10th anniversary, and I can’t believe we’ve made it this far. This will be a huge celebration, which will be kind of like a greatest hits, with Elephant Sessions, Kinnaris Quintet, Talisk, Lord of the Isles and Optimo (Espacio) all on the bill.
‘We’re proud that you can trace the rise of modern trad alongside Skye Live. When we started, bands like Elephant Sessions and Talisk were playing tiny stages. Now they’re selling out the Barrowlands.’
Looking back on the last ten years, co-festival director Michael Pelligrotti says the defining moment came during the pandemic. In 2021, with the global music industry on its knees, Skye Live streamed live performances from iconic Skye locations to more than one million people from all over the world.
‘Covid could have been the end of the festival. But we decided that if people couldn’t come to Skye, we’d take Skye to them,’ Michael said.
‘That’s where the idea of the livestream came from. We filmed artists performing at some of the most stunning locations on the island—the Quiraing, the Cuillins, and the Old Man of Storr.
‘Something magic happened. It blew up. The response was unbelievable. By the time we announced the next festival, we were selling out faster than ever before. It proved what we always knew – Skye Live isn’t just about the music, it’s about this place. That’s what makes it special.’
The festival has been praised by Gaelic speakers, with many acts performing in the Celtic language. The number of Gaelic speakers in the 2022 census has shot up to 69,701 and the proportion of people who ‘can speak a word or two’ of Gaelic has doubled in the last ten years.
More than 127,000 Duolingo users signed up to learn Gaelic when it launched while Open University launched Scots language course with 7,000 people registered in 2019.
In a time when Kneecap, a film, mostly in the Irish language, about a Belfast trio of rappers who refuse to perform in English, picked up a BAFTA it seems cultural preservation is at the forefront of people’s minds and the team at Skye Live are all for it.
Niall, son of Runrig star Donnie Munro, said: ‘Ten years ago, even among fluent Gaelic speakers, there was hesitancy to use the language socially. Now, I see my younger sister and her friends speaking Gaelic naturally, and that shift has been incredible.
Blazin Fiddles at Skye Live. Credit: Ryan Buchanan
‘The festival plays a small part in that. Gaelic isn’t just something to be protected—it’s something to be lived, to be part of the present. Artists like Niteworks and Sian have been so important in proving that. Gaelic belongs on a festival stage. It belongs in dance music. It belongs anywhere people want it to be.’
And it’s no secret that Skye’s tourism rates are skyrocketing year-on-year. As Scotland’s second most popular destination, Skye’s visitor numbers have increased by almost a third since 2019 to 857,000.
Over 1 million people were predicted to visit the Inner Hebridean island in summer 2024. Visitor numbers continue to grow each year and now exceed pre-covid levels.
‘There’s this assumption that growth means getting bigger,’ Niall said. ‘But that’s not what we want. Skye Live works because it’s small. You don’t lose yourself in a crowd of 50,000 people – you’re part of something intimate. That energy is what makes it special.
‘We’d rather refine what we have, introduce things like the Thursday night gig to bring in bigger artists without losing the heart of the festival. It’s about keeping it feeling like a gathering rather than an industry event.’
Skye Live Festival runs this year from 8-11 May.
Read more News stories here.
Subscribe to read the latest issue of Scottish Field.
Author
TAGS
FOLLOW US
