Fèis a’ Bhaile, based in the City of Inverness, is now entering its 29th year of providing traditional music tuition and arts activities for young people. 

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2018

The main activity of the Fèis, until recently has been a week long Main Fèis in October. In 2018 we introduced three Mini-Fèis Days during the summer holidays. Participant numbers for the initial day were low but by the third week the numbers had risen, showing that there was a demand for them. To develop our October Fèis week we introduced a senior Fèis option to run alongside our main program of activities. This was aimed at secondary pupils and they had the opportunity to try out composition, tune arrangements, sound engineering and digital media. The aim of this was to offer something new for participants that have been attending the Fèis for a number of years and also to attract new participants in the older age group who may otherwise be put off being in classes along with much younger children.

 

2019

We run more Mini-Fèis Days in the Easter and Summer holidays. We also organised classes throughout the year, such as Ceilidh band, Gaelic Drama, Step dance. We worked in partnership with Inverness Trad Experience and offered weekly fiddle, accordion, guitar and mandolin tuition.

We had also looked at obtaining our own premises so that we can furhter develop our annual program, with the view of being able to offer more weekly classes, including keyboard and clarsach.

At our main Fèis in October we introduced a Fèis-bheag for children in Primary 1-3 to run alongside our main and senior Fèis. As a result our October Fèis week facilitated activities for children and young adults between the ages of four to eighteen.

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2020 onwards

We aim to develop the skills and confidence of our Ceilidh band group to a point where they feel comfortable performing in public. This will allow us to offer them performance opportunities in the local community and give them valuable playing experience while raising the profile of the Fèis. In the longer-term we would love to work towards the creation of a Ceilidh Trail.

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Fèis a’ Bhaile is run by a group of volunteers. We are always keen for people to join us and help us to further develop our organisation. so if you are feeling inspired by our story and fancy being involved please get in touch via our contact page.

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Notes:    Fèis a’ Bhaile is a member of Fèisean an Gàidheal – the umbrella organisation of the Fèis movement.