Set a course for Portsoy
by - 17:55 on 27 June 2007
Is it that time already? At Portsoy, on the Moray Firth coast, an hour's drive north of Aberdeen, it’s time for another Scottish Traditional Boats Festival. This event always takes place around the very end of June, the specific date depending on the tides.
Festivals, like visitor attractions, have to grow and change, otherwise they wither away. The ‘Boats Festival’ in recent years has really succeeded in managing to adapt and renew itself to keep its appeal fresh. Its core, however, stays the same: a celebration of wee boats, centred on Portsoy’s historic harbour on the Moray Firth coast.
Both boats and visitors come from miles around and transform the little town for the weekend. Everyone comes to see the largest collection of traditional boats in Scotland, as well as the craft and heritage demonstrations and displays, the music, dance and theatre, and a food fair. (That ever-ready phrase of the jaded tourism copywriter ‘something for everyone’ is all but unavoidable here.)
And there’s always some novelty. A few years back, it was the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar and, well I never, a chap was there dressed up as Lord Nelson, with much pomp and ceremony. The next year, there was a visitor who not only dressed up as Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex - he actually was the guy.
Anyway, Portsoy exhibits the happy circumstances that happen when an event, originally staged for the locals, attracts interest from visitors to the area as well and the prestige of the occasion ripples out far beyond the wee town on the bare coast. Besides, stroll along the atmospheric harbourfront, enjoying some hot smoked fish or some other local delight, and you’ll be aware of the special atmosphere. Amongst the promenading crowds, little groups constantly meet, stop and chat, form up, move on and reform. It’s a great get-together – and you don’t even need to know anything abut boats, traditional or otherwise. Especially if the sun does shine, then the ‘boats festival’ is definitely one to sample.
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