Ben Hesling and Emily MacKinnon at Bogbain farm
National Collective – the creative and cultural non-party political movement for Scottish independence – launches in Inverness this weekend. On Sunday 1st June, Bogbain farm will play host to a jam-packed programme of performers, musicians, guest speakers and workshops as well as some very special surprise guests!
From 3pm – 11pm on Sunday, an incredible bill of local and national talent are coming together to take part: Adam Sutherland & Jock Urquhart, Andy Thorburn, Dogstar Theatre’s Hamish MacDonald, Mary Ann Kennedy, Brian ÓhEadhra, Maria Hall, Emily Mackinnon & Ben Hesling, Fi & Martin Vass, Schiehallion, Hò-rò, Conor O’Hara, Beefy and John Lorelei, Stephanie Lewiki, Jamie Marshall, Andrew Barnett, Rob Ellen & The Slim Panatellas, Nick Firth and The Gellions Music Sessions.
Everyone is welcome. Entry to this event is FREE but donations are welcome to help National Collective take the creative movement to communities across Scotland before the vote in September.
Musician and broadcaster, Bruce MacGregor, hosting National Collective at Bogain, has said:
“We’re absolutely delighted to be hosting the launch of the Inverness National Collective. It is vital that people engage with politics at this critical moment, and that’s what the National Collective is all about; engagement. This isn’t a bunch of politicians preaching to you. This is a body of ordinary people who want to discuss, debate and listen, and as a result, create a template for a new Scotland.
If the arts can, in any way, bring people into politics, then all to the good. I’d love to think that this is the kind of discussion group that Robert Burns would have enjoyed; writers, artists, musicians, radicals, thinkers, environmentalists, folk who want to share a better future.”
Guest speakers include former BBC journalist Derek Bateman; author, mountaineer and general outdoor man Cameron McNeish and 2013 GUSNA president and local girl Màiri Keir. Workshops in creative cultural activism will be offered by National Collective organisers Mairi McFadyen and Ròs Hunter.
National Collective has active branches throughout the country in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Stirling, Dundee, Borders, Dumfries & Galloway, Argyll, Shetland and Inverness. Local groups provide National Collective members with the opportunity to meet each other, collaborate and to contribute creatively to the wider Yes movement.
Image courtesy of Bogbain Farm
