Jura’s first festival of oral culture will be held over Easter weekend, the 8 and 9 April 2012. Jura’s annual September jamboree of Scottish Traditional music has been a must go, must see, must hear event for over a decade and a half. Now, that team is bringing their enthusiasm to mounting an Easter holiday event.

Bàrr mo Theanga or Tip of the Tongue is a celebration of oral culture in many forms – storytelling, poetry, song and reading out loud, in English and Gaelic. With place at its heart, the new event will explore Jura, Scotland and her islands and that common ground that is human experience.

Artists and features confirmed for Bàrr mo Theanga include:

• Anne Michaels, Orange Prize for Fiction winning Canadian author of ‘The Winter Vault’, set partly on the island.
• Ian Stephen, Lewisman, storyteller, poet and man of the sea.
• Alasdair Roberts, renowned musician and folklorist.
• Jura’s ceilidh and oral tradition will be at the fore with workshops, ceildihs, song cycles, oral histories and a wonderful children’s programme.
• A new song cycle based on the works of the Islay Bards

All this at what those in the know say is the best time of year to see an island that boasts one the UK’s last wildernesses, with a community that won’t stop making you part of it while you’re there, and of course, there’s always the chance of a dram or two.

The event has been made possible by a Quality Production award from Creative Scotland and support from Jura Development Trust’s Argyll and the Islands Leader and HIE funded GatE Local Development Officer. You can find more information at www.tipofthetonguefestival.com and www.barrmotheanga.com