2008 Festival Chairman's Report

The Mountain Festival 2008 was brilliant, I enjoyed every part of it.

We got off to a great start with the launch party at Nevis Range when around 200 people danced into the night and I knew then it was going to be a superb week.

Bridget Thomas and Ali Martin pulled in the biggest crowd of paddlers we've seen on the driest weekend of the winter! The celebration of 75 years of Mountain Rescue put together by Jonathan Hart brought in even more people and was an emotional and nostalgic show of appreciation for the brilliant work done all year round by the Lochaber MRT and all the other rescue teams across the country.  

Thanks to the Outdoor Capital of the UK and Robert Linton our film competition was a great success and the international winner (Tepuy) was the most talked about film of the whole festival. The Nevis Connections day of events and evening presentations was a magical event and I'd like to thank Liz and Brian Wilshaw for all their work for the festival and the Nevis Partnership for the huge support they gave us as presenting partners.  

Frazer Coupland of No Fuss Events put on the best bike night we've ever had with the mountain bike legend Gary Fisher, kicked off by Gregor Muir's bizarre spectacle of penny farthing racing on the High Street! Jo Gambi inspired us with her mountaineering stories and set the scene for the fascinating discussion on the ethics of climbing Everest on the final night. We could have gone on even later into the night with this discussion and Dave MacLeod did a great job of hosting the evening.

The festival is starting to act as a catalyst for many exciting projects in the area. Ali Austin and the John Muir Trust ran a writers workshop that will carry on to become a writers group, meeting regularly throughout the year. Croft Digital Media are setting up a series of workshops for young people to learn the skills of filmmaking in time for them to create their own films before the next film competition.  

The highlights for me included the Youth Mountain Festival. Around 400 high school pupils from across Lochaber came to see the best of the festival films and the art and photography exhibition thanks to Simon Jeffrey and Graeme Livingston at Caol Youth Centre.

The range and quality of the images, writing and sculpture in the Art and Photo Exhibition was the best we've seen. The Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture was presented to Hamish MacInnes and it seemed to me that many people came just for this presentation. Seeing Hamish recognised for his lifetime of work for mountain culture in his climbing, his input into mountain rescue, his writing, editing and filmmaking was a wonderful moment.

But for raw energy and talent with the best buzz we've ever created the UK Slacklining Masters will stand out for a long time. Clare Macleod did the huge job of pulling this event together, the first of it's kind in the world, and it was a fantastic spectacle of dedication, hard work and sheer talent.  

The festival exists to celebrate the influence of the hills, glens and lochs have on our lives. They give us our jobs through industry such as Rio Tinto Alcan and tourism. They give us beautiful places to enjoy and endless challenges in our leisure time. They inspire us to create images, prose and poetry that goes on to inspire others and bring the hills into our every day lives. All of this we did and much more.

The team of volunteers that presents the mountain festival put in a massive amount of energy, time and dedication to the event. The festival was super smooth and professional in its presentation and created a buzz that will last a long time.

 I'm proud of every one of them and proud to be part of such a good team. The festival could not exist without the support of our sponsors - The Nevis Partnership, EventScotland, Outdoor Capital of the UK, Rio Tinto Alcan, Nevis Range, Hotscot, Ellis Brigham and all the other sponsors many of which are small local businesses. The festival represents the coming together of the whole community, individuals and businesses alike, to celebrate the wonderful area we live in.

Thank you to everyone involved and with your support next year, we'll do it all again in 2009.  I'd like mention the committee members, the people that do all the work but are rarely seen and thanked for their efforts - Al Ness, Simon Green, Louise Pescod, Bill Scott, Tina Davenport, Clare MacLeod, Sam Arch, Heather Cline, Lisa Wharton and Simon Purdon.

See you next year!

Mike Pescod

Chairman