Media and Communications student brings festival fever to Iona
A GCU Student has helped the Isle of Iona find all the right notes this summer thanks to a celebration of indie rock and Scottish folk music.
The Sound of Iona Music Festival was held on the 21st and 22nd of June, and featured the likes of Skerryvore and Saint Phnx, while also providing a platform for some of the country’s best up-and-coming talent.
More than 30 acts got the opportunity to perform across a variety of stages set up at the Village Hall, Library and local café.
Final year Media and Communications student Laura O’Neill sat down with us in May to embrace the calm before the musical storm and discuss a variety of different factors, including the practicalities of bringing 240 ticket holders to a place that only has 170 permanent residents…
Where did the idea for the festival initially come from?
“There used to be a festival on the Island and my now boyfriend, Will, had been talking to folk about it and asking if it was all going to happen again, but it didn’t look likely. He then basically came up with the idea of bringing it back.
“I’m actually from Glasgow but I’d spent a few seasons in Iona working in hospitality. I came up in 2022 and worked for four months - that was when I first met Will. I then came back last year and phoned him to ask if he could help me from the ferry with my bags (because you can’t bring your car onto Iona!).
“In return for him helping me with my bags, I said I’d buy him a pint. When we sat down, he told me he had this idea to put on a festival. It was originally going to be like a wooden bar in a field with a band playing, but it’s definitely grown since then.
“I explained to him that I studied Media and Communications at GCU and would do everything I could to help with the marketing side of it.
“By the end of the season, when I left in September, I was the Director of SOI Music Events Limited. The company basically grew as the idea for the festival grew.”
Tell me a bit about your connection to Iona?
“When I was growing up my family holidays were in places up north, like the Highlands and Islands. We would all go and stay in a house, play daft games and dress up – we never really went abroad. It was just what I was used to and what I loved.
“When my nana passed away I just wanted to get a break from everything. I applied for a few jobs on the different islands and one came up in Iona, and I just decided to go for it.
“I’ve just completely fallen in love with it. It’s situated just off the Isle of Mull, so you need two ferries to get here. It’s tiny – there are only 170 permanent residents and it’s only three miles long. We’ve got two hotels, a couple of cafes, a wee SPAR shop and a pub. You get to know everyone here very quickly!”
Did your time on the island at that point help inspire the festival?
“I feel like as seasonal staff it’s really easy to take from the island, but Will and I both said we wanted to give something back. We’ve been here for two seasons now and we hadn’t really seen a big social scene or anything like that. We wanted to do something that would benefit all these small businesses – that’s how this idea came about.
“Will works here seasonally and now manages the Iona Pods site. He works seven days a week: he’s also got a gardening business and a property management business going on. I also work seven days a week through my role at the Pods and also shifts at The Rookery Café. Will and I have been together for a while now and live in our own wee caravan.”
You must be a big music fan if you’re deciding to put on a festival?
“There’s obviously a million and one things you could do to give back to the Island, but this all comes from our love of music. I used to go to a gig every month. I was raised on classic rock: one of the first things I learned was how to say all the members of Led Zeppelin in order. Combine that with the fact that I’m also on my best form at a Cèilidh, and you have an insight into my music taste.
“Being able to hand-pick these artists has been my idea of heaven. Our Friday is indie rock and our Saturday is Scottish folk. We’re holding it in the Iona Village Hall and we’ve got our own production team coming to help make it the event we want it to be. There’s three venues where it’s actually being held: Main Stage (Village Hall), Library Stage (acoustic venue just off to the side of the Village Hall) and then The Rookery Café (outdoor garden that will hold our Buskers of Glasgow stage).”
How many tickets are available?
“There were 240 tickets on sale because we’re limited to our venue capacity. We’ve actually sold out already, which is just incredible.
“It was my job to promote it via our Sound of Iona Festival Facebook and Instagram pages, but what we found was that a lot of interest came locally in Mull. I had the chance to use the skills I gained throughout my degree by sending a few articles to one of their local papers. I also got in touch with a woman at the Oban Times to help promote it. Social media was also used extensively to promote it – thankfully the Island is beautiful, so I was never short of content.
“In addition to the people who are joining us from the local area, we’ve also got quite a few people coming from Glasgow, and I’m quite lucky that a few of my family and friends are coming too. Will’s from the Lake District, so there are people coming from there as well.”
What can people attending expect? It must be challenging organising something like this on such a small island?
“Accommodation is very limited in Iona, but there is a campsite and the owners have locked it off for the weekend, so it’ll just be attendees and the artists staying there.
“It is a bit of a logistical nightmare being on an island…but we knew that! We’re applying for a lot of permits for first aiders and tour vans coming over. It’s very intimate, there’s only 240 people going to be there for the duration of the festival, but that’s a lot for Iona. We just want it to be a once in a lifetime experience that shows off the best of the Island.
“Our bar is also stocked with Thistly Cross Cider and Tempest Beer. We’ve actually got Peter (owner of Thistly Cross) coming to work the bar for us because he really believes in everything we’re doing. It’s all about Scottish brands along with our Scottish artists.”
How did you go about securing some of the different artists?
“We probably did it the opposite way from how an established festival would do it where you get your headliners and then everyone else approaches you. I used to work with a couple of guys who are in the bands Straid and Cardo, so we started with those two and built up from there.
“I approached a few folks who I listen to and really like; Jarad Rowan and The Laurettes. The two brothers in Skerryvore started TMF (Tiree Music Festival), so we basically thought that they might sympathise with us trying to start our own music festival – thankfully they did!
“We were looking at different options for our other headliner and that was how we ended up with Saint Phnx, who are pretty well known across the country! All of the bands have been amazing for us in terms of promotional work because we were able to just connect with them on Instagram and ask them to share things, which then promoted what we’re doing to a wider audience.”
It’s been quite the journey for both Will and yourself! Has running your own music festival always been a goal or is it more to do with circumstances leading you to this point?
“It’s definitely been a bit of both. I didn’t really have a specific job in mind for leaving University. I was quite lucky because my degree is very open and gives you different opportunities. I previously studied Psychology for a year but felt it was quite restrictive.
“Media and Communications lets you go down lots of different avenues with your career. I was going into my fourth year at GCU when the festival came up, but I just felt that the prospect of doing this was too good to knock back. I had to make both sides of it work and I was quite lucky because Will really led on the festival while I did my dissertation. I keep saying to him that my well done for finishing up was this massive pile of festival work!”
Are you wanting to run the festival again in future?
“I’d love to keep this going. I want to make it bigger and just see where things go from there. The dream would be to build my own media team that delivers this type of festival all over Scotland. There are so many options for Will and I – it really is quite exciting!”
Catch all the latest news on the Sound of Iona Music Festival via Instagram
By Ross Clark
Got an SHLS or GSBS story? Email me at Ross.Clark@gcu.ac.uk or message me on Twitter