Festival Hall of Fame winners announced

The Hebridean Celtic Festival has announced the winners of this year’s 15th anniversary Hall of Fame as voted by the public.

The three awards recognise performances over the past fifteen years at the event.

The winners of Best Show in the Big Blue Marquee were Runrig for their 2005 performance, Karen Matheson (2009) won Best Show in An Lanntair, and Runrig won Best Show in the 15 Years of the Festival, again 2005.

The festival received nominations from the public as to who should be honoured for their performances at the four-day event, and in a close run voting contest, Runrig’s and Karen Matheson’s were deemed the most memorable.

“HebCelt Festival”

The festival is celebrating its 15th anniversary and attracts 16,500 people to the annual event, half of them from countries around the world such as the USA, Canada and Australia. The Hall of Fame was created to mark the anniversary and the first three inductees were renowned Scottish artistes Runrig, Julie Fowlis, and Peatbog Faeries.

Festival Director Caroline MacLennan said: “The voting was very close and at times fevered. All of the performances on the shortlist were worthy of being nominated and we would have been honoured to have any of them in our Hall of Fame. The winning performances were indeed special and highly representative of the superb music to be heard at the festival.”

Calum Macdonald of Runrig said: “Runrig are honoured indeed to have been acknowledged in this way. The HebCelt Festival has had a wonderful 15 year history and we feel very proud to have played a part in it.

“Venue and atmosphere”

“The band always feels an extra sense of anticipation and purpose getting any opportunity to play in our spiritual homeland of the Western Isles and the 2005 Festival was very special for us. We would like to take this opportunity of thanking all the fans who voted for us and we can’t wait for this year’s anniversary festival to come along.”

Karen Matheson said: “I am delighted to be given this accolade from such a special festival. Some concerts over the years become a blur in the memory but the performance at An Lanntair last summer was one of those nights for myself and the band when the music, venue and atmosphere collided in a great way – so it’s all the more rewarding to be voted for by the public!”

The shortlist for nominations were:

Best Show in the Big Blue Marquee
Face the West (2009); Runrig (2005); The Chair (2009)

Best Show in An Lanntair, the Stornoway arts centre
Karen Matheson (2009); The Chair (2009); Iain Morrison (2008)

Best Show in the 15 Years of the Festival
Runrig (2005); The Chair (2009); Seth Lakeman (2008)

In a fourth category, Best Outreach Event, that covers the programme of gigs and performances in communities outwith Stornoway, an outright winner was the performance given by The Hunger Mountain Boys at Breasclete in 2008.

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