Touring Network Announced

It is a problem: stuck here in Glasgow, I never need to leave the city to see plenty of art. But thanks to Vision Mechanics, I went on a tour of Scotland last year, and realised that there were plenty of cool places further north (and south - I love the Borders), and that the evolution of folk music owes a great deal to the isolated places of creativity that don't turn up on my mental map. There was this one time in Stornoway...

Fun Makes Good 
Touring Network's Facebook page.

Karine Polwart said: "The folk music scene in Scotland has been invigorated and sustained by performers, promoters and festival organisers in the Highlands, islands and northern isles. Some of my most treasured memories as an artist have been of performing in places like Tobermory, Stromness, Colonsay, and Ullapool."

Sam Eccles said: "We wish to reach out to local, visiting and tourist audiences and, in doing so, provide prominent and practical event information. Today gives us all the opportunity to highlight the world class theatre, music, dance, comedy, circus and kids' shows happening from Shetland to Campbeltown, Birnam to Skye.

"These small-scale venues, set amid some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world, bring audiences up close and personal with the very best performers from Scotland and beyond. For both audiences and performers, the intimate stages, at the heart of small communities, offer a profound connection with landscape, with place and with people."

I shall think on this. There is something about the context of art that goes beyond tourism... where the music belongs, or the theatre makes sense... the connection made by touring companies, like troubadours moving across the nation.