Snow Water, the company behind the wonderful Atlantic Sessions were due to host the Distant Sky Summer Solstice Festival on Rathlin Island. Due to the health and safety concerns around Covid-19, the festival won’t be happening this year but they’ve still found a way to celebrate.
Snow Water teamed up with Smarts and Tourism Ireland to produce Distant Sky – Rathlin. The film features a number of Northern Ireland’s finest creatives performing their craft in the stunning surroundings of Rathlin.
On the local music front it features enchanting performances from Ciara O’Neill, Reevah as well as Tour Alaska. Their appearances sit alongside features on composer Neil Martin, novelist Glenn Patterson, and an interview with Noel McCurdy, who maintains the lighthouse on Rathlin, on how what island life has been like during lockdown. The film concludes with The Rathlin Island Choir singing The Rathlin Song with new footage from the island.
You can watch the film for yourself below:-
Joe Lindsay, Artistic Associate of Snow Water and presenter of Distant Sky Rathlin, said:
“Of all the projects we at Snow Water do, our Distant Sky: Rathlin gigs have always been incredibly special. The gathering of musicians and writers, going to that wonderful island where we always get such a beautiful, warm welcome and we always make great memories there. Like many people who have had to cancel events and gigs this year, we are gutted we won’t be able to bring Distant Sky to the island this year. So we thought we would gather up the artists who were set to collaborate with us and put a film together to share at least a flavour of what we do. We still feel under the same sky as the islanders and people we miss and cannot wait to return to.”
Director of Snow Water, Carolyn Mathers, commented:
“Tourism NI and Tourism Ireland have continued to showcase our artists to audiences both at home and overseas through social media at this time. Distant Sky is a celebration of our landscape, its beauty, wildness and how it inspires music and prose from our greatest musicians and writers. The combination allows the imagination to take people to another place. We are delighted to be working with Tourism Ireland’s #FillyourheartwithIreland initiative in order to bring our finest artists and the sights and sounds of Rathlin to all corners of the world.”
