Feis Farr

Gatherings

Come along and try any two activities

Fiddle, Guitar, Bodhran, Stepdancing

Group Work

Whistle, Chanter, Keyboards, Gaelic Song

Ending with a tutors concert, ceilidh dance and refreshments

Meets at 7.30pm in Farr Hall Fridays 16th March and 13th April

Cost:

• £30 a Family for the six sesssions
  
• £18 individual for the six sessions
• or, £4 individual/£6 Family each session

Contact Heather Forbes for more information

History

The feis was originally called Feis Srath Fharragaig. It started about fifteen years ago and ran in the usual format of a week each year. That was at the time when my children attended. But after a few years both the children and the organisers seemed to be losing interest. I was invited to join the committee and then found that i was left as the principal member. Obviously the recipe wasn't proving to be suitable - it was time for a change.

So we reinvented the feis. For the first year or two it moved between Farr and Stratherrick. We ran the proposed format past Feisan nan Gaidheal explaining that it would be one night a month with short sessions running for forty-five minutes, inviting whole families along. The participants can choose to do one subject and move on to another session for another forty-five minutes. they can go to a less populated class first and then go onto the class they wanted originally in the second session, and it works.

It has been running for about ten years or more now and has evolved over the years. Originally, in Farr School, there would be two sessions followed by tea around nine anf then the tutors would do a concert. We try to keep it of a high standard so that the youngsters who have been scraping away at their fiddles can see what they can achieve at the end of it - something to aspire to. Some people just come along for the concert. It's become a wee bit of established entertainment in the area. After that we have a dance with a caller so the youngsters and adults are learning dance as well. Then we have a problem of getting people to go home! From Drumnaglass down to Daviot there are 450 t0 500 people in total. Between thirty to sixty people usually attend, of all ages, from a wide area between Stratherrick to Inverness...

....The future of the feis depends on keeping those that are interested involved by giving them more to do and holding on to the people we already have. We have a faithful band of tutors and the success of the feis is down to them. So that's what the feis is should be about - people meeting together and enjoying themselves. I think we're achieving that at the feis. Alasdair Forbes, Organiser.

Events

Taigh na Gàidhlig Mhealanais presents:

Ùrachadh
Orrachoo - renewal, refreshment (of the alcoholic kind)
Performing in Farr Hall, Tuesday 14th August @ 7.30 pm.
£5.00 and £4.00 concession.

Sgeul Dùthaich ic Aoidh troimh na linntean
Join us for the story of Dùthaich ic Aoidh and Assain , North West Sutherland, through music, poems, songs, stories and images.
Performing traditional music and song and their own compositions will be:
James Graham
James Ross
Catriona MacLeod
Rhona Sutherland

Producer: D W Stewart.