Cianalas
Illustration by Mia Dong
White sands, bagpipes, and sunshine were all I needed to satisfy my Scottish heart, and all of these things were provided by the Tiree Music Festival. We swapped our rave shades for kilts and dj decks for fiddles,it feels far removed from the sweaty shirtless strangers, EDM and excessive drug use of the typical UK festival scene Annually a barely habited island in the inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland opens its ferry ports to 2,100 lucky people every year, showcasing the beauty of a slow Scottish island life.
Tiree Music Festival is hosted in Tiree. The remote island focuses on the idea of taking a slow and deliberate approach to festival culture. The week is filled with ceilidhs, beach yoga and even beginner Gaelic lessons. This slower approach to festival culture is crucial to maintaining the sustainable practices around the festival’s operation. TMF strives to ensure its small island maintains its pristine blue waters and stunning landscapes. This festival focuses on long-term sustainability and creating an enthusiastic community around the island’s festival. TMF was originally created by local band Skerryvore back in 2010, sparking a thriving music community on the Island. Tiree has since produced bands such as Skippinish and Tide Lines, who seek to bring a modern twist to the Scottish trad music beloved by so many. This has created such a fantastic community around Scottish Traditional music, or trad, appealing across generations and thriving communities. It focuses on preserving Scottish traditions and Gaelic language, which can otherwise be viewed as a dying culture by many British inhabitants. The festival’s impact is crucially important to the value of preserving the cultural history of the Scottish nation.
My friends and I, a bunch of 20-somethings, were surprised by how much we enjoyed the weekend. Though it may have been the rarity of excellent Scottish weather, the festival has truly transformed my approach to festival culture. No more do I crave the sweaty and dingy confines of a rave tent with too many topless men, I am much more inclined to enjoy a ceilidh with strangers or a quiet beer looking out on Tiree’s blue water. There is a time and a place for the dirty, grotty, gritty quintessential festival experience, and I have seen my fair share of it. But a weekend filled with local food and an infinite number of Scotland flags suddenly sounds so much more appealing.
The festival became a way for me to connect to my Scottish roots. It made me appreciate what a unique and exciting contribution Scotland makes to the world. This kind of cultural immersion makes me appreciate a more romantic Scotland. It helped me to envision and even yearn to go back to my homeland in a way I hadn’t quite experienced before. Being in Canada has been vastly different, forcing me to reminisce about my life in Scotland. In Gaelic, the word “cianalas” encapsulates this feeling. It means homesickness, nostalgia, a yearning to return to somewhere, and it has no real direct English translation. I think it perfectly encapsulates the essence of how my relationship with Scotland changed. I now experience cianalas often, all because of TMF. Tiree Music Festival is a festival that I could not recommend enough. If you're looking to swap two-stepping for some wellies and kilt. It just might be the festival for you.