Easdale’s Epic Stage Story

Keren Cafferty is owner of The Puffin Bar & Restaurant on Easdale Island as well as arts co-ordinator for Easdale Island Community Hall. Read on to hear about her, her community and her #EPICSTAGESTORY.

This blog was published in August 2018

I live on Easdale Island on the west coast of Scotland and I am currently the arts co-ordinator for Easdale Island Community Hall.

I’ve been here for 12 years, having moved from Edinburgh in 2006. Easdale is so unique and really special. Once you visit it gets into your soul and you never want to leave! When you do leave you can’t wait to get back!

My main job is running my own business on the island, The Puffer Bar & Restaurant. Everything else is voluntary and includes finding suitable artists/gigs/events, book them, co-ordinate and apply for suitable funding….sounds simple on paper.

I’ve been involved in promoting in Easdale in various ways for around 10 years. I was chair, for 8 years, of the community development group and charity who own and run the hall on behalf of community and after stepping down from the board of directors I have taken over helping to co-ordinate the arts programme and applying for funding.

There’s two of us who organise the events and programme, submit funding applications etc., but a whole raft of other volunteers help to run the events, market gigs and look after the hall.

Easdale Island hall is magical. The island and venue have an interesting history and the hall’s design is unique. It has great acoustics and even the journey to get here is unusual. The hall provides every performer with a very intimate interaction with their audience.

Selection

We don’t really have a set criteria for deciding whether or not to book a performer –  every gig is different. We have had to adapt drastically in the last few years due to more competitive funding rounds. We try to introduce new art forms each year to keep things evolving and we try to offer something for everyone as we have very diverse audiences. It’s also good to offer some unique or unusual events to capture people’s imaginations.

We love to dance here so bands that get your feet tapping are always a winner! Last year we had Tide Lines and Peatbog Faeries which both sold out.

Challenges

Our biggest challenge is volunteer fatigue. Our community development has been very successful over the last 20 years or so but the community is tiny (66 residents) and it tends to be the same folk stepping up to the mark to ensure everything we’ve built keeps going. People are also very quick to judge if an event is not as popular as we thought it might be but if people don’t make the effort and get involved then we will lose momentum.

Marketing and advertising gigs is never easy and requires a huge amount of resources and effort.

Keren’s #epicstagestory

For me getting Peatbog Faeries here last year was a personal achievement. Our programme of events has always run from Easter to end of September but we took the decision at the beginning of last year to try and extend into October. I happened to see Peatbogs were touring in October and thought what the heck and contacted their management.

When I asked about fees I was pretty sure they would be out of our price range (our capacity is only 150) and I was right. Not only that we also couldn’t meet their lighting spec which is such a major part of their show. Despite all this the guys were really keen to come and play here so we were able to strike a deal with them. The gig sold out completely and it was fantastic. The hall was bouncing and it was a really good bit of publicity for the community. For me it shows despite our size and location our wee venue does have enormous appeal to both artists and audiences. You just have to go for it!