Faclan: the Hebridean Book Festival is to return to An Lanntair from Wednesday 27 to Saturday 30 October, exploring Islands: Worlds in Isolation.
Look out for a full programme announcement on Tuesday 21 September, when tickets for festival events will also go on sale.
This year’s choice of festival theme is inspired partly by the impact of the pandemic, and partly by Faclan’s spectacular setting in the Outer Hebrides.
As we continue to emerge from lockdown, Faclan 2021 is once again set to consist of four days of live events at An Lanntair, including film screenings, an exhibition and a fringe programme supported by Outer Hebrides LEADER.
In response to the theme, the programme will explore everything from the infamous disappearance of the Flannan Islands lighthouse keepers to living in a shed, the lost music of foghorns, and life in a post-human landscape. For the adventurous there will even be a guided expedition out to a cluster of shielings: islands on the moor.
Festival director Roddy Murray said: “This year we hope to welcome back live audiences, chastened but fortified by the experience of the past 18 months. We will ‘dwell’ on islands – as destinations, anchor points, oases of nature, sanctuaries. We’ll consider islands inland, portable islands, the romance and mystery of islands, and the beacons that guide and warn us as we head towards landfall. The prospect of a return to a new and better normal, is exciting.”
Find out more about Faclan here.
Photo: Boreray from Hirta: Alex Boyd ©