2018 is the tenth anniversary of the Kintyre Songwriters Festival and over the past decade the event has earned a national reputation as the place to see the stars of Scottish music in an intimate setting. This year is no exception and the holiday weekend of 4th-6th of May will see local talent joined by some of the best live performers from across the country.

Headliners on Friday night at Whisky Macs are Scottish rock-rap sensations Simmons Is Old. Probably the most respected voice in Scottish hip-hop, frontman Mog has released several critically-acclaimed albums and performed at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Also performing are rising Glasgow new-wave pop-rockers 100 Fables, recent winners of the Hard Rock Cafe European Battle Of The Bands competition. Support comes from local acts including The Twisted Melons, Sleeping With The Enemy and The Dubious Blues Band.

Saturday headliners at Campbeltown Town Hall are Declan Welsh and The Decadent West whose politicised pop-punk has seen them compared to The Clash. A star very much on the rise, Declan's new single "Shiny Toys" has been playlisted by Spotify and the Premier League.

Main support comes from Easterhouse's answer to Janis Joplin, the incredible Carly Connor who has toured with Pauli Nutini and performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Another guest performer is Rhona MacFarlane, a Royal Conservatoire graduate who has recently performed at Celtic Connections and on the Janice Fosythe show on BBC Radio Scotland.

They are joined by Campbeltown's own Matt MacAllister who will be performing at the festival for the first time since the viral success of his "Scottish Winds" video, festival favourites Gullion, newcomer George Hackett and many more.

Sunday headliner is Idlewild singer Roddy Woomble, returning to Campbeltown for the first time since headlining the Mull of Kintyre Music Festival in 2006. Roddy will be performing an intimate acoustic set suited to the unique songwriters festival atmosphere. Support comes from Josephine Sillars and the Manic Pixie Dreams. Originally from the highlands, Josephine has toured internationally after a string of sold-out performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Sunday also sees the return of the orginal lineup of local band A New Hope? plus festival favourites The Gilchristians performing the music of festival founder Kenneth Campbell Gilchrist. There will also be some very special guest performers for the 10th anniversary.

With over 6 hours of music each night, plus the famous open stage at Whisky Macs in the afternoon, the festival has something for everyone.

Almost a decade has past since the community in Campbeltown suffered the loss of one of the finest songwriters to come from the toon, Kenny Gilchrist. It was Kenny’s ambition, along with musician Ross Macinnes, to set up a music festival to showcase local talent but as the plans were taking shape he was tragically killed in a car crash. Instead a group of local musicians took up the baton and launched the first ever Kintyre Songwriters Festival in 2008.
Since then the festival has gone from strength to strength attracting names such as Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison, Be Charlotte and Angus Munro in recent years. The weekend is split into three nights with the Friday held in the local pub, Whisky Macs, with free entry. This year saw impressive sets from natives The Twisted Melons, Gullion, Violent Echo, The Shift and The Bob Ross Appreciation Society, amongst others, with the locals getting into the swing of things early on in the weekend.
The Saturday and Sunday day slots are filled with two open mic sessions, again hosted in Whisky Macs, and are usually well attended despite some frankly abhorrent hangovers with this year being no exception.
As for the evening sets, these are held in the White Hart Hotel and this is where the festival really comes into its own. The pub band mindset is put to one side and the performers are given the chance to showcase their work with sets of about three songs each under concert conditions. The combination of a seated venue and an overwhelming respect for the artists makes the KSF one of Scotland’s best grassroots festivals to highlight both new and established talent.
Local acts such as Matthew McAllister, Sleeping With The Enemy and Adam Fortune impressed the crowd on Saturday night before headliners Marc Rooney (Pronto Mama), Mayor Stubbs and Martha Ffion rounded things off nicely. And, as is tradition, The Gilchristians, who formed to carry forward the music of founder Kenny Gilchrist, played us out with some of Kenny’s finest tunes.
Sunday night, known locally as 'survivor’s night', was again split between local performers and some bigger names such as Louis Abbott (Admiral Fallow), Finn LeMarinel and Shanine Gallagher.
Well, another year and another KSF. Let’s hope that year ten will prove to be just as much of a success.