Festival Honeymoon

Visitors to the Hebridean Celtic Festival come from all walks of life. This year they will include a Scottish couple who have chosen to schedule their marriage around the festival, with the first day of their honeymoon coinciding with the opening night.

Catriona MacKenzie, the bride to be at this year's festival said: “My fiancé Clinton White and I live in Dunfermline but I'm originally from Point on Lewis, as is my mother. We thought it would be a fantastic way to celebrate our wedding by timing it around this year's festival. We've bought season tickets for our wedding party and at least ten of us will be there for the big blue marquee when the main gigs begin. It should be a wonderful start to married life together.”

Arriving from Hamilton, Ontario in Canada will be Brian Winer, accompanied by three others including his wife Jan. He said: “None of us have any direct relationship to the Outer Hebrides but my wife and I have had a keen interest in all things Scottish for many years. We have attended innumerable Highland Games in Canada and the USA and generally share a common love of Celtic music in all its forms. We have been following the news of the Hebridean Celtic Festival for three or four years on the website and finally decided to plan another trip to Scotland with the festival the focal point of the trip. It will mean a round trip of almost 10,000 miles and will cost thousands of dollars but it will be worth it to get to this year's Hebridean Celtic Festival.”

Travelling just as far will be the Meads from New Zealand . Jill and Romilly Mead will be joined by their friend, Ann Martin, as they make a 24,000 round mile trip to the festival. Said Jill: “We don't have any connection with Stornoway but we've always wanted to go to the Outer Hebrides . We have an obsession with Celtic music and have fallen in love with Scotland as well.

"To get there we'll have to take a two hour car journey from our farm to the nearest domestic airport (Nelson) then a one hour flight to Auckland . We change to the international airport before flying 12 hours to Hong Kong . Then it takes 13 hours from Hong Kong to Heathrow where we connect to Glasgow . We pick up a hire car in Glasgow and drive over a couple of days up the west coast where Ann rejoins us in Ullapool (after stopping at Heathrow) and we take the car onto the ferry with us. Phew!"