00:00I'm really delighted that we've organised it because it's just come to life now.
00:15It's been months of preparation, organising, talking to different people all over the world.
00:21So yes, I'm delighted today.
00:23I've been a Blues fan for a long, long time
00:25and it was a conversation that I had with Chris O'Neill, who's the principal of UHI.
00:30He was at an event in Inverness Townhouse.
00:32We were just talking in general about music and whatever
00:36and he said that his brother-in-law was a Blues aficionado.
00:40So we started to talk about Kevin and then he said,
00:43speak to Kevin, he might be able to help me do something.
00:46So I contacted Kevin directly.
00:49We had a good old chat about what I was envisaging and that's it.
00:54And of course, there was lots of things and processes that you have to go through
00:58and discussion with my working group to see what they thought.
01:01And as I said earlier, the city leader didn't know what Blues was.
01:04So that was a bit of a down here right from the start.
01:06So I had to persuade him, you know, that this is what it's all about.
01:09And as you can see today, he's been converted.
01:13I think it's good for the city. It's good for hospitality in their area.
01:16It's good for businesses in the area. It's good for the city.
01:19We hope it's going to be exciting and we hope it will make people understand what Blues is really all about.
01:26It's about fun. It's about having a good time.
01:29And it's like any music. I think people have to think of it just as a music festival.
01:33Because the bands that are playing are all exciting from the very first to the very last.
01:38Generally, Blues festivals these days are UK Blues Rock festivals.
01:43It's not like many years ago bands were being brought over from the States
01:48and Blues was much more widespread. We've gone back to that.
01:52We're flying in the Fabulous Thunderbirds from Texas, Southern Avenue from Memphis.
01:59They're both flying in just to play for Inverness.
02:02Southern Avenue up for a Grammy next month, which is amazing.
02:07And the other bands, they're all top quality.
02:11And that's what a festival deserves.
02:14One of the big advantages of Inverness, it's a bigger city than I've worked in before.
02:18But one of the nice things as well, it's in the city.
02:22So you're staying in hotels and it's much more comfortable for people to come here.
02:27It's easy for them to get to. They can spend the money in hotels, bars, restaurants.
02:32And it's only going to bring prosperity to the city.
02:35And we're doing this to promote Inverness within the Blues field.
02:40And the scope for that in the future is huge.
02:44I think this event especially, looking at events into the rest of our calendar,
02:48we're very lucky to have the high level of visitation that we have.
02:52However, increasingly, one of the missions of what Visit Inverness Loch Ness wants to do
02:56and its members are really motivated for is making it a year-round destination.
03:01And that's not just about protecting income streams or anything like that.
03:05It's protecting jobs at the end of the day and the livelihood of local people.
03:09If we can create events that create higher occupancy,
03:12there's less seasonality within what we have in the area.
03:16So this event for us is a stepping stone that we see in terms of further growth for larger events
03:23than what was termed previously as the off-season.
03:27I think increasingly, you know, with the 50th anniversary of Eden Court this year,
03:31with the increased live music that we have at the Highlander or at McGregor's Bar,
03:36and all the nightlife that we have, Inverness is becoming known as one of the greatest night out that we have in Scotland.
03:41But not only for the lovely bars and all the food and drink, but also because of its music.
03:46And I think at the heart of that, we have to keep investing in that.
03:49And this investment of showing the diversity of the musical offer
03:53and the quality of artists that we can attract to our city is important.
03:57Having Grammy-nominated artists coming to Inverness is really special
04:02and something that we should be proud of as residents of this place,
04:07that we are attracting that level of talent.
04:10And I hope that it will continue into the future.
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