Inverness Festival Association

🔈AGM TONIGHT CANCELLED 🔈

Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances we have had to cancel our AGM that was due to take place tonight. ☹️

We will reschedule it to either be held on Zoom or in person before the end of August. I will post details of this on Facebook once we finalise a date. Apologies for any inconvenience this may chase.

Jason ☺️

🎼 GOLSPIE MÒD 🎼

Sharing on behalf of one of our wonderful adjudicators from this year’s festival! If you would like to enter the Golspie Mòd, please see the details and links below! 🎶

The Caithness & Sutherland local Mòd will be held in Golspie High School on June 6th.

Here is the syllabus. Please remember entries and spectating are free - so encourage everyone to come and enjoy themselves:

https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/0b5nHFbEHb9bqe4GV23zuRZiw

The Online entry form is here:

https://forms.gle/xRrnLikf4UUATRGq7

If you would prefer to enter via email or post, please see all info on the syllabus. Thanks

Golspie Mòd 2026 Entry Form Mὸd Ionadail Ghallaibh is Chataibh Caithness & Sutherland local Mòd, Golspie Saturday 6th June 2026

📣A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR 📣

Almost a week on from the conclusion of the 2026 festival I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone for making the festival the success it was! 👏🏻☺️

To my entire committee who surprised me with the presentation of a trophy last week and who work tirelessly throughout the year; Mary Dormer (Friends Secretary), Angus Bethune (Treasurer), Munro Ross (Minutes Secretary), Amanda James (Trophy Secretary), Nellie McClurg (Contracts Secretary), Carolyn Edees (Volunteers Secretary), Mhairi Ross and Moira Leslie (Committee Members) and of course to my wonderful Vice Chair and Festival Organiser, Samara Hodi 👏🏻 I’m so very lucky to have such a great group of people to run the festival with! 🤩

To all of our volunteers, adjudicators and accompanists, thank you for making the festival a special and welcoming place for all performers from the very young to the not so very young 😅 it’s what’s makes our festival the inclusive environment we strive for!

To Rev Andy Bryer, his wife Janet Bryer and the entire leadership team of the Inverness Methodist Church a huge thank you for their continued support and commitment to hosting us 😊

To the businesses who support us: Moray Firth Pianos, The Waterfront and Lettuce Eat thank you for providing us with the piano and our food! ☺️🎹🍽️

And finally, to all of our entrants, supporters and followers, thank you as always for your constant support! This is the reason we do it and I feel very fortunate to be in my position as Chair and keep seeing everyone go from strength to strength! 🤩👏🏻

So thank you to you all, I hope you have a great weekend! There are still more posts to come on this page over the next few weeks, but time for a rest for the whole committee! ☺️

Jason 🎶

Jason McClurg
Chairperson
Inverness Festival Association

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 TRAD PERFORMANCES 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Saturday night was a crazy busy night at the festival, so only managed to capture one photo 😂

Well done to Alyth MacMillan, Bella MacDonald and Mairead Anna MacDonald winners of the Junior Trad Duo/Trio trophy and to Innes Wilson and Finlay James, winners of the Swordale Trophy for Senior Trad Duo/Trio performance 🏆 and to Jack Livings, winner of the Liz Quinn cup for for Scottish Traditional Performance Intermediate Solo 🏆 also a huge well done to Ruaridh James for his great performance in this class too!

We then moved on to vocal classes! Many congratulations to Sophie Stewart, winner of the Kinoull Cup for Traditional Scottish Song Open and a shout out to all our other great entrants in this class: Ian Douglas, Iain Gordon and Kristin Mustard 🎶 in our Scots Song Open class a huge well done to Tim Dawson for winning the Murd Macgregor Memorial Quaich for Gaelic Singing and to Iain Gordon and Ian Douglas for winning the Saltire Society Trophy for their duet in this class! 👏🏻🏆

After this we had our Traditional Music Performance Solo Open and a great performance from Megan MacDonald on the accordion 🪗 and she won the Menzies Shield and Black Isle Accordion Shield for this class! 🏆

Our slow air class had great performances from Emma Cameron and Rosabella Smith 👏🏻

Our evening ended with Sweetie Break winning the Clan Munro Assocation cup for the Trad Groups/Bands Secondary class and George Cull winning the Highland Music Trust Quaich for Celtic Original Composition 👏🏻 many thanks to Mejeil F’Baraq and Emma Cameron for their fab entries in this class too! 👏🏻☺️

That hopefully, sums up a VERY busy Saturday evening! There are still a few more posts to come this week so keep an eye out for them!

Jason ☺️🎶

🏆 PREMIER COMPETITION 🏆

The 2026 Inverness Music Festival came to a close today with the premier competition. Well done to Finlay McLuckie, winner of the Curtis Craig Cup and Emma Cameron, winner of the Elizabeth Davies Quaich 👏🏻 a massive well done to Jayden Chen, Eilidh Boyd, Martha Potts and Eilidh Fisher for their incredible performances too!

As I have said throughout, the festival is not about the silverware and prizes it’s about the performance and the experience that goes with it! So thank you to everyone! 👏🏻🎶

There are still some more classes to post some photos of which I will be doing throughout the week along with some other videos we captured!

Jason 😊

🎶PREMIER COMPETITION THIS AFTERNOON🎶

Come along and see some amazing musicians perform in our annual premier competition starting at 2.30pm!

🎶 TRAD GROUPS- PRIMARY/MIXED AGES 🎶

Well done to Craighill Strings, winners of the Ness Trophy for Scottish Traditional Music Groups/Bands Primary and to Hilton of Cadboll Primary School- Senior Band + Friends, winners of the Inverness Music Festival Trophy for Traditional Music Groups Mixed School Ages 🏆

Also a big well done to Hilton of Cadboll Primary School Band for their great performance in the Scottish Traditional Music Groups/Bands Primary class too! 👏🏻

🪉 CLARSACH CLASSES 🪉

Congratulations to Freya Watt, winner of the Clarsach Elementary class and to Daisy Crossley, winner of the Clarsach Intermediate class and the Coisir nan Teud trophy for the highest mark across both these classes! 🎶🏆

Well done to all of our other entrants in these classes: Olivia Ciocanel, Eilidh Macleod, Lucy Secker, Eve Banks, Amber Murray, Isla James, Anna Ogston and Rosie Stewart in Elementary and Maya Ciocanel, Lillian’s Mahlitz and Solveig Dennis in the Intermediate Class 👏🏻

🎻 FIDDLE OPEN 🎻

Massive well done to Emma Cameron winner of the Scott Skinner Trophy for this class! 🏆

Also well done to our other entrants in this class: Rosina Matheson (Runner up), Hannah Robertson, Rory Bain and Finlay James 👏🏻

🎻 FIRST FIDDLE CLASSES 🎻

Congratulations to Alyth MacMillan (not pictured), winner of the Allan Trophy for Fiddle Elementary, Isla James, winner of the Webster Memorial Trophy for Fiddle Intermediate Class and to Rosabella Smith, winner of the Highland Strathspey and Reel Society Challenge Cup for Fiddle Advanced 🏆🥳

Also well done to all our other super entrants in these classes: Meredith Towers, Fearne Peterkin, Bella MacDonald, Mairead Anna MacDonald and Anna Peterson for Fiddle Elementary. And to: Hannah Bain, Jack Livings, Iona Wilson and Jack Bain for the Fiddle Advanced class 👏🏻