The day that the Circus left town

Wednesday was finale night with the Orkney Camerata concert followed by Kathryn Tickell.

The Camerata are a group of talented local musicians, most of whom teach in some capacity, which perhaps explains why young Orcadian musicians are beginning to pop up all over the place in the national music scene. This was a lovely concert. The Bach was great, with soloists Elizabeth Way Sullivan and Christina Sargent. I particularly enjoyed the John Rutter piece which finished the concert, with a lovely lush sound to the strings.

Then to the Arts theatre where Kathryn Tickell's band brought the Festival proper to a close in rousing style. Great fun.

Meanwhile at the Festival Club 'the Chair' were going down a storm with their high-energy set as the last Oiseau Rouge show finished up to leave the tent free for votes of thanks and the announcement of next year's programme: headline Nicola Benedetti. I finally got home from the Spiegeltent wrap party at around 3am.

Yesterday was spent emptying the Spiegeltent and returning the stuff that we begged, borrowed, hired and salvaged to make it all happen.

Today Klessens took down the tent. I had to go back to work although the first hour was spent on the beach at Billia Croo for EMEC in t-shirt weather, so don't feel too sorry for me. I dropped by the site for a last visit around 3.30pm, just in time to see the last couple of frames come down and wish Tom Klessens a safe journey back to Belgium. That's it.... now, I need a holiday.