Festival Firework Folly

Both the Press and Journal and Inverness David Henderson suggest that the whole of the Highlands should share the £250,000 burden for a firework display that has been foisted upon Inverness by the city councillors.

No thank you. If city councillors want to squander the Common Good Fund on a blaze of light and a cloud of smoke to celebrate the demise of Highland 2007 that is their business. Those of us living any distance from Inverness have been left largely unmoved by this year long cultural extravaganza frequently heralded as being of great social and economic benefit to the entire Highlands. A glance at the latest promotional brochure tells me that out of 139 events planned between September and December only 8 are located in Lochaber. Two of these, the World Mountain Bike Championships and the National Mod would have been held without the presence of Highland 2007. 

Perhaps, there have been enormous benefits as a result of the festival, but they haven’t been felt much further than the shores of Loch Ness. So don’t expect a great rush of donations from outside the great “culture capital” to fund their festival firework folly in the sky.