05.09.08 Best Traditional Event Award - St Kilda

On the 4th September, Glasgow Science Centre played host to the inaugural Scottish Events Awards Ceremony, organised by The Drum. Amongst the 400 hopefuls who attended the event, a team of organisers and actors from St Kilda: A European Opera attended, and are delighted to announce that St Kilda was successful in the category for Best Traditional Event.

Malcolm Maclean, Director of Pròiseact nan Ealan, said: “We are thrilled with our award for Best Traditional Event. This is well deserved, and it is great to see St Kilda up there with such popular national and international events as T in the Park and Connect Music Festival. Our sincere congratulations go our to all the winners of the first Scottish Events Awards”.

Whilst St Kilda beat both Ha Ha Comedy’s Comedian of the Year and the World Pipe Band Championships, the project unfortunately lost out in Best Arts Award Category where they were beaten by Radiance 07, Glasgow’s International Festival of Light.

Calum Macaulay, who acted in the Scottish production (Mac Talla nan Eun), and is well known as presenter for popular children’s programme Dè a-nis?, attended the event. He said: “"It was an absolute pleasure for me to be involved in the acting side of this amazing project and my experiences on both St Kilda and in Stornoway will remain with me forever more. I was in a state of disbelief when I heard our name being called out as winners as we were up against the world renowned World Pipe Band Championships. I was, and still am absolutely delighted for everyone involved in this project and I hope that we have not seen the end of St Kilda: A European Opera."

The sold out event evening brought together all areas of the industry; event promoters, event sponsors, suppliers, venues, strategists and marketers and provided a unique opportunity for all these areas to gather and be recognised and rewarded for the achievements. Entertainment was provided by Spinal Chord who performed an arial acrobatics routine reminiscent of the cliff dancing scenes used in the St Kilda project, performed by French company Retouramont.