Fochabers Festival Speyfest celebrate nomination for Event of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards

COMMITTEE members of Fochabers festival Speyfest are 'delighted' to be nominated for a major music award.

The festival, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, has been shortlisted for Event of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards.

Speyfest Chair Ashleigh McGregor said: "We are absolutely buzzing to be nominated for the Hands up for Trad Scottish Traditional Music Awards.

"With this year being the 25th anniversary of Speyfest it was a big year - so we're totally delighted to be nominated."

The Speyfest team will be at the awards ceremony at Caird Hall in Dundee on Sunday, December 4, where the winners for each category will be announced.

They will also be joined by the Fochabers Fiddlers, who have been invited to the event to pay tribute James Alexander, the founder of Speyfest, who died earlier this year.

James created the festival in 1995, having played with the Fochabers Fiddlers and a number of Scottish trad bands, he decided to bring a summer event to Fochabers to showcase traditional music and dance in the region.

Since then, Speyfest has grown from a small local event of around 300 people, to a 1500-capacity festival.

Ashley added: "I think the night will be quite emotional for us all.

"It's a big night for Fochabers because there are about 42 members of the Fochabers Fiddlers going down to play and there will also be a table of 20 of us from Speyfest there.

"It will be really nice to all be there together, we're really looking forward to it. We're all friends, although we have lots of people from different ages and generations, we're all so close because of the Fiddlers and certainly in Fochabers that has all been down to James, so it'll be a really special night."

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