In pictures: 10 years of Skye Live music festival
Skye Live - a festival celebrating traditional and electronic music - marks its 10th anniversary in May.But founder and co-festival director Niall Munro said there were often times when he feared the event would not survive beyond a few years.He said: "For the first five, six years, we never sold out and we never made a penny."We had nights where we were running around putting up posters ourselves, sending emails at midnight, trying to get people to take a chance on what we were doing. "It was a real labour of love. But we just weren't willing to let it go."
Ambitious plans in 2016 to expand Skye Live saw it moved from an area in Portree called The Lump to the town's King George's Park.Niall said it almost destroyed the festival."Year two was a reality check," he said."We thought, 'great, we've doubled the line up, so surely ticket sales will double too'."That didn't happen. We stretched ourselves too thin and lost some of what made the festival special."
Niall added: "Moving back to The Lump the following year was one of the best decisions we ever made. "The setting is crucial to what Skye Live is – when you're looking out over the water, with the Cuillins in the background, it doesn't feel like any other festival. "The location is as much a part of the experience as the music."Acts through the years have included Mercury Prize nominees Django Django, Highland folk supergroup Session A9, techno DJ Denis Sulta, and experimental indie artist Pictish Trail.
Co-festival director Michael Pelligrotti said a defining moment for the festival came during the Covid pandemic when festivals did not go ahead to help prevent the spread of the virus.In 2021, Skye Live streamed live individual performances from island locations to more than one million people.Michael said: "Covid could have been the end of the festival. "But we decided that if people couldn't come to Skye, we'd take Skye to them."Something magic happened. It blew up. The response was unbelievable."
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