Hebridean Celtic Festival '09

The annual Hebridean Celtic Festival will be back at Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland from Wednesday 15th to Saturday 18th of July. Expect four days of music featuring top international artists set against the backdrop of the Gaelic culture and Hebridean heritage.

The event is expected to attract 15,000 people over 4 days. The acts announced for this year's programme include The Sharon Shannon Big Band, La Bottine Souriante, Michael McGoldrick Band, Blair Douglas Band, The Wilders, Karen Matheson, Fred Morrison, The Chair, Le Vent du Nord, Box Club, Calum Alex & Seonaidh Beag MacMillan, Calum Martin's Megantic Outlaw, Deoch an Dorus, Face the West & Friends, Fred Morrison, Gary Innes & Ewan Robertson, Norrie MacIver & Sineag MacIntyre, and The Ploughboys.

Many complementary events are also hosted by community groups around Stornaway and the islands of Lewis and Harris catering for a variety of tastes both musical and otherwise. There are also workshops often given by many of the festival's performers, which includes masterclass sessions. Also included are the ever popular Gaelic language tasters, lectures and children's entertainment plus numerous pub sessions in Stornoway and the surrounding area.

Tickets will be on sale from Friday 1st May, priced as follows: season ticket £59, concession £47, child ticket (under 14) £18, (under 5) Free. to buy tickets, click here.

There's also a full programme of family entertainment, as well as a street arts programme with Eff 'n' Hec, Laird and Lady, Vince the Baby Dragon and more characters out and about during the week with walkabout, workshops and fire shows.

This year the festival will be operating a cashless system for the bars through the introduction of bar tokens in an attempt to reduce queuing. Tokens can be bought at the festival office from Monday, 13th July and also from two token stalls within the main site.

Transport
There are good public transport links, flights available to Stornaway and a regular ferry service.

There will be more information here when available.