Aberfeldy was on our radar because of an amazing artist, Iain Morrison. He’d be playing at the Aberfeldy Festival. It turns out that it wasn’t just a music festival, it included poetry and drama too.
We couldn’t have been happier with the lineup!
It seemed that everyone in town was at the festival. Since they were a bit late in getting the festival started on Friday, we kept getting turned away at the doors. First for a half hour (or so), then by another half hour.
A drink at Black Watch Inn later we returned to the venue and the first band was already on stage playing.
The town hall venue was small and intimate. Locals served drinks and food from a small room in the back and it was never uncomfortably crowded.
Here’s a clip of Iain Morrison playing Broken Off Car Door, my favorite of his songs.
Another amazing artist we discovered because he was on the lineup: Eef Barzelay (from Clem Snide).
This is a bit from his song Moment In the Sun, which he’s said he wrote from the perspective of Jewel in the early 2000s. It’s even more awesome when you know that.
On Day 2, there was drama in the morning at the movie theater, a small one, by LA standards. In the afternoon, we caught their spoken word/poetry/prose reading, also in the theater. This was excellent! I wish I had some of these on film…but I did find Jim Mackintosh’s poetry online.
Music night 2 included Aberfeldy’s own band, Starwheel Press, who Jon thought stole the night with their folksy Scottish sound. The lead singer hand-picked the musicians at the festival and set the whole thing up. Both nights of music were interspersed with fantastic poetry by the emcee as the stage was swapped out for the next musicians.
My favorite moment, among SO MANY great ones, was of an impromptu afternoon performance in a yurt in the middle of the town. Eef Barzelay played 6 or so songs, for an audience of other performers and a few stray passersby who dared enter. Here’s a video of one. What luck!
Being such a small town, poets, musicians, artists of all sorts were there as festival-goers too. An unforgettable experience.
Of course, what post would be done without a bit of food?
Haggis here, haggis there, haggis everywhere! As a local told us, “Haggis is good any time of day!” It’s true, it’s served with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We’ve even seen Haggis flavored chips (or “crisps” as they’re called here).
And believe it or not, that’s not all from our Aberfeldy adventures. But for now, I’ll just leave you with this lovely art piece of a Scottish Highland cow.
Thank you. I find myself thinking oh boy how can you beam me up up Scotty