Young People Kick off their Year in true Scottish-Style!

Irn Bru, Tunnock’s Teacakes and haggis were on the menu as a group of young people hosted a late Burns Night at Aberlour’s Youthpoint service in Moray. The service helps children and young people who may be struggling with their emotions and behaviour.

The group of 12-25 year-olds organised every detail of the event to kick off Aberlour’s YOYP2018 celebrations. The year of Young People 2018 aims to inspire Scotland through its young people, celebrating their achievements, valuing their contribution to communities and creating new opportunities for them to shine locally, nationally and globally.

With this in mind, young people chose the menu, cooked a three course meal  and organised some traditional Scottish entertainment. The budding chefs rustled up tattie Soup, haggis, mince, neeps and tatties and for pudding, teacakes and pancakes! The group spent the day shopping, preparing veg, setting tables, cooking, and creating a staging area for the band.

Entertainment came in the form of a band called Kilda, made up of the talented Mhari Marwick and Scott Wood. Mhari played the fiddle with Scott on bagpipes, tin whistle, fiddle and keyboard. Both musicians play in other bands, Mhari in Fat-Suit (a Scottish jazz, folk, fusion, traditional and dance band) and Scott in Skerryvore (a multi award-winning folk-rock band from Scotland who have performed worldwide and feature in an international Visit Scotland advert).

After dazzling them with some tunes, Mhari and Scott talked to the young people about Scottish music, being performers and how they got started in the music industry.

Youthpoint volunteer, Cerys, said: “It was good listening to live Scottish music and having the traditional Scottish meal after it. It was fun trying to speak like Robbie Burns when quoting his poems too. I think the best part was sitting eating at the dinner tables with everyone – it was really good, all laughing and talking sharing together!  The live entertainment music was great and talking to the artists after the concert was interesting.”

One of the young people commented “I learnt something new about my Scottish heritage and culture and feel quite proud of it.  I have never been to a concert before, never heard live Scottish music and was surprised that I enjoyed it as I thought I wouldn’t. I wasn’t sure about eating haggis but I was brave enough to have a taste! The Irn Bru and Tunnock’s teacakes were better though. I hope we do a Robbie Burns night again!”

This is the first event in a year long programme of activities for the Year of Young People, so stay tuned for more updates!