Tickets for the opening concert and many more acts at the upcoming Findhorn Bay Festival in September have gone on sale.
The multi-award-winning festival, which occurs every two years returns to celebrate the very best of local, national and international cultural experiences in music, theatre, dance, circus, exhibitions and family events.
The 5th Findhorn Bay Festival will take place from Friday 20 until Sunday 29 September 2024, a spectacular 10-day celebration set in unexpected spaces and scenic locations within the rural and coastal towns and villages around the stunning bay of Findhorn and beyond.
Here are some of the highlights for which tickets are now available.
- Opening Concert – a double bill with Moray-based musicians, singer-songwriters Brother Sea and Oran with the latter launching her debut album Rebellious Rebirth, inspired by Moray’s landscape.
- This year’s Closing Concert is from festival favourite Su-a Lee who will be joined by three of her stellar collaborators from her stunning debut album Dialogues – Duncan Chisholm, Donald Shaw and Hamish Napier Music. The first half of the concert will mark the culmination of the festival’s musicians-in-residence and international collaboration between Dopey Monkey (Moray) and Jean Luc Thomas and Gab Fraure (Brittany). This set sees the musicians playing tunes from their respective repertoires and cultural traditions along with collaborative pieces resulting from their residency exchange.
- Other music includes the esteemed jazz vocalist Kurt Elling with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra directed by Tommy Smith in Steppin Out! In this latest collaboration, Elling showcases his virtuosity through a thoughtfully curated selection of songs drawn from Sinatra’s iconic albums, Basie and Ellington big band classics, enchanting show tunes, soul-stirring saxophone masterpieces by John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter, and 1980s pop hits by the Police and Joe Jackson.
- The Breath will share the stage with Inge Thomson, Fraser Fifield and Dopey Monkey. Comprising Manchester-based guitarist Stuart McCallum and singer/flautist Ríoghnach Connolly, The Breath perform a contemporary take on alt-folk. Inge Thomson and Fraser Fifield are two of Scottish music’s most fearless pioneers. Combining exquisite vocals with accordion, whistles, sax, kaval and electronics, they summon a musical universe somehow both ancient and futuristic.
- The festival welcomes back the National Theatre of Scotland with June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me – the story of one of country music’s most iconic voices: June Carter Cash.
- Family shows include Barrowland Ballet’s stunning interactive video installation Family Portrait capturing Artistic Director, Natasha Gilmore and her three children in an intimate portrayal of family life. With space to roam, the children encounter rabbit skulls, converse with spiders, make war paint with berries and bury their mother in bark.
- Unicorn Dance Party. Sparkling unicorns, Melody and Luna, are looking for new unicorn pals and they’ve heard that there are loads of sparkling wee ones in Moray! Unicorn Dance Party is an inclusive, high energy and joy-filled show for young people and their families. You are guaranteed to be clapping your hands and shaking your tails to some rockin’ jams. Performances include Hebridean Treasure: Lost & Found, which captivatingly blends song, dance and storytelling with live Scottish and South Asian music to conjure up the landscapes of the ancient Scottish Isles.
- The festival also embarks on a captivating journey with Cirqulation, Scotland’s premier circus cabaret, showcasing the best of Scottish circus. In collaboration with Moray Flying Circus, this family-friendly event features awe-inspiring aerial displays on silks, hammocks and aerial hoops. Expect enchanting stilt walkers, daring acrobatics and spellbinding juggling routines. The participation programme includes Hooligan Chorus – a five-day performance workshop, in partnership with Hooligan Art Community, a theatre company from Kyiv, which creates work that advocates for freedom of expression and equality.
- The town centre of Forres will once again be awash with light, colour and creativity thanks to Window Wanderland. Households, community groups, families, businesses and schools are invited to create window-based artworks around the festival themes of nature and the natural world, connection and belonging.
- Space for Wellbeing is a collaborative community design project led by Kate MacKay and a team of neurodivergent artists and designers working in textile, sound, garden design and painting. Artworks created from the workshops will form part of a temporary space and artwork installation created especially for the festival.
- Performances for schools include Eco Drama’s The Forgotten Orchard and Rachael MacintyreCreative’s Moonbeam On a Cat’s Ear. The school programme also consists of an afternoon concert with Dopey Monkey, Jean Luc Thomas and Gab Fraure who share the bill with Duncan Chisholm and Hamish Napier Music.
The full programme of events will be available in July.
Tickets can be booked:
- Online at findhornbayfestival.com
- By phone on 01309 673137
- In person at the new Festival Box Office, 98 High Street, Forres, Moray, IV36 1NX (behind the banking hub)
