Clanadonia

An appropriate picture for St Andrews Day.

This was the excellent tribal drumming band Clanadonia. The 5 drummers do tend to drown out the pipes a bit but apart from that they are really excellent and entertaining. This was one of the events bringing to a close Homecoming Scotland 2009. Not sure there were many visitors in the audience but the shoppers really enjoyed the entertainment.

I heard an interesting debate on the radio today about whether Homecoming Scotland has been a success or not. There were accusations that it had not met its targets and had all been a bit 'tartan and shortbread'. The biggest issue is that there are still debts relating to the 'The Gathering' which was the single biggest event. It was a success in many levels including attracting 47,000 people but has left behind a host of debts. The overall impression was that the vast majority of the events had been successful and generated lots of business. It also attracted large numbers of visitors including many from Canada and America, and about 14% more than normal from Europe.

I think they were a bit unlucky in that Homecoming had been in the planning for several years but no one could have foreseen that it would coincide with a worldwide recession. I think the debate will rage on for many months.