CULTURE, OUTDOOR & SPORT SKYE LIVE
Skye Live has taken a break for 2020 to allow for site maintenance work to be carried out. Photograph: Ryan Buchanan
Skye Live postponed for 2020 for ‘essential groundworks’
But hiatus gives organisers time to reflect on greener future for annual music festival in Portree
BY KEVIN O’SULLIVAN I
t was billed as ‘doing a Glasto’ in a national newspaper but beneath the headlines organ- isers of a boutique music festi- val on Skye insist a decision
to postpone this year’s event was
a one-off. Rather than an attempt to ape Glastonbury’s ‘fallow year’ policy, whereby the land would be allowed to recover naturally from heavy use, some groundworks were needed to restore Am Meall, translated from the Gaelic as ‘Te Lump’. Te impossibly beautiful site, a two-tier wooded park on the side of a small hill jutting out into the harbour at Portree, plays host to the annual Skye Live festival and organisers issued a statement in February saying September’s event would not be going ahead. “It was literally a need to do
some work on the drainage as there was quite a lot stand- ing water on the site. Tere was a concern that because of the footfall that it wasn’t being given
16 | EVENTSBASE | SPRING 2020
adequate time to recover,” says Michael Pellegrotti, who runs the 2,000-capacity festival on the pen- insula, which is framed by picture postcard coloured houses dotting the harbourside.
LAUNCHED FIVE years ago, the festival has grown into some- thing of a local sensation and has attracted an array of homegrown artists as well as some big names, including Te Waterboys, who played to a sellout crowd last year. Optimo, Peat & Diesel and Auntie Flo, the DJ and producer who won the Scottish Album of the Year Award, were among the perform- ers in 2019, the fifth event at the site, which also plays host to the Skye Highland Games every year.
Te decision to postpone this year, although disappointing for festival- goers, has actually given organisers pause for thought to reflect on the wider implications for responsible environmental management of a precious local asset. Although by no means a major event, many of the audience travel by car from places like Glasgow and farther afield, says Pellegrotti, who has cut his teeth with DF Concerts on big outdoor festivals such as TRSNMT. A community land buyout of the site, which is underway this year, has also brought sustainability issues to the fore. Pellegrotti says: “What we want
to do with the festival moving for- ward is to reduce its environmental impact. So in some ways this has
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