The brightest and best St Andrews Festival will light up the North East of Fife this weekend. This year’s event aims to delight visitors with large scale light and sound installations, plays music, food and the stunning world premier of WILDFIRE! an outdoor medley of music, dance and martial arts.
For the weekend of 28th to the 30th November St Andrews will burst into life to celebrate the very best of Scotland and its Patron Saint, in a programme packed with exciting, entertaining and unique events.
The centrepiece will be a series of spectacular Son et Lumiere lighting up the medieval walls of St Andrews. Set to an evocative soundtrack, each installation is themed to reflect different aspects of Scotland’s heritage. The impressive Son et Lumiere performances have been specially commissioned for the event from the country’s most experienced designers who were responsible for illuminating Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s jubilee and providing the impressive backdrop for the Edinburgh Tattoo.
The Festival’s Son et Lumiere sound and light shows, installed in the town’s historical Cathedral and University will be hugely impressive. Based around the journey of Scotland from Ice Age to the present time, the historic journey of St Andrew’s bones to the town and St Andrews position as a medieval centre of pilgrimage. The Son et Lumiere provide an amazing immersive experience of images, music and the spoken word in the open air.
As you would expect the Festival comes to a climax on Monday the 30th November, St Andrews Day with a traditional pipe band Beating the Retreat in South Street by Holy Trinity leading onto the Nae4 Whimps Street Ceilidh at the West Port with The Lomond Ceilidh Band and a special appearance by Celtic band Saor Patrol.
This will be followed by a torchlight procession behind the pipe band to a secret location for the World Premier of WILDFIRE! an outdoor spectacular for the 21st century which will blend multi-art forms with the myth and magic of Celtic folklore. Wild and visceral in style, and open to the elements, WILDFIRE! is driven by a powerful soundtrack - a hybrid fusion of flamenco, classical and Arabic disciplines with traditional Scottish and contemporary music featuring the haunting sounds of re-constructed bronze-age Celtic horns.
The Festival has over 50 events over the 3 days at venues across the town. It will feature music to suit all tastes from traditional to medieval. St Andrews University Union Market St will host two nights of Trad and Celtic Folk/Rock with some of Scotland’s most exciting young talent including rising stars Bodega, winners of the coveted BBC2 Young Folk Award in 2006 and The Simple Touch hot of the back of Perthshire Amber and a full UK tour supporting Donnie Munroe The bands will be supported by St Andrews own Black Sheep and Soul Food Café.
'A Series of Unfortunate Events - A Musical History of Medieval Scotland' will feature at The Holy Trinity Church South St at 7.45pm on Saturday 28 November. Recently featured in the BBC’s ‘A History of Scotland’, the medieval music specialists Gaita will present a selection of music from the "St Andrews Music Book", performed on reproductions of ancient instruments, along with music from other medieval sources, including the Inchcolm Antiphoner and outside views of Scotland in music from England and France. Woven into the concert is a narrative history of the kings and courts of Scotland.
Dunfermline-born playwright Gregory Burke's debut Gagarin Way will be presented by Incompetent Productions over the weekend in the Barrron Theatre, North St. The play is a slick, thrilling and
darkly hilarious tour of the Socialist Underground.
The Festival also features the 29th Scottish Comedy Evening staring some of Scotland’s leading comedians, open days at the British Golf Museum, Cathedral and Castle plus a once a year chance to see inside the famous R&A Clubhouse with its historic collection of golfing artefacts, a major power kiting festival, The Island Tapes with David Allison at the New Picture House on Sunday and a Scottish food event hosted by Scotsman Wine writer Rose Murray Brown.
St Andrews Festival organiser Rob Murray Brown told us “We are delighted this amazing performance will feature at our Festival. It will provide a superb closing event for Homecoming Scotland on St Andrew’s Day in St Andrews and will make St Andrews the place to be that day.”
The event’s new website contains the most up to date information. www.standrewsfestival.co.uk.