Festival 'in the middle of nowhere' celebrates its colourful creator

A festival "in the middle of nowhere" is celebrating its colourful co-founder this weekend.

Simon and Liz Holmes set up the Knockengorroch Festival near Carsphairn in Galloway back in 1998.

When he died in December last year, the family considered cancelling the event as it happened at one of the busiest times for preparations.

Instead, they decided to press on with the festival as a celebration of Simon's life which took him around the world before settling in south-west Scotland.

He and Liz moved to the area in 1973 and bought Knockengorroch for the "princely sum" of £4,000.

"Although we are Londoners we feel we have fully settled into Galloway," said Liz.

It was nearly a quarter of a century after arriving that they were bitten by the festival bug.

"We had some friends in 1997 who were scouts for what is known as the International Rainbow Gathering," she explained.

"It is a gathering of people from all over the world who all come together in a reasonably secret place - not a big public place - in the hills somewhere."

She described it as "a giant get together with a kind of spiritual element".

"It was such fun and it made us realise people would be happy to travel to what would appear to be the middle of nowhere," she said.

"In actual fact we are only an hour-and-a-half maximum from Glasgow but when you get here we are in our own glen and right away from what would appear to be civilisation."

The first festival was held in 1998 with about 350 people attending.

"We were rank amateurs as far as festival organisation goes but when you've got a lot of enthusiasm you can overcome a lot of challenges," said Liz.

"I suppose really we haven't looked back."

The festival started out as a Scottish traditional music event before they decided they wanted to "throw it out further".

"We pride ourselves on being one of the first greenfield festivals in Scotland to feature what are known as world music artists - I hate that term - we like to call them international artists," she explained.

The atmosphere, she said, is "very friendly, open".

"People like to come because they appreciate a sense of freedom."

However, Simon's death did make the family think long and hard about whether to go ahead - especially with other challenges facing small, independent festivals.

"We discussed at length whether we should cancel because he went just before Christmas and that's when we are meant to be in the throes of organising," said Liz.

"It set us back badly."

But, in the end, they decided to go ahead and celebrate Simon's life.

"If we were to cancel we could have had some kind of event later on but we thought let's dedicate this festival to celebrate his life and put on lots of innovative entertainment, new acts," said Liz.

During his life, Simon travelled widely across places like Iraq, Syria and North Africa.

Liz described him as "mercurial" with huge enthusiasm and knowledge on a range of subjects - particularly the history of the area around Knockengorroch.

He threw that energy into the festival.

"In the early days he did everything," she said.

"He would be wandering round the site telling everybody where everything should go."

He would also deliver a speech on the final night of the festival, thanking everyone for attending but also making comment on global events.

"We may project his last speech on the Sunday night," said Liz.

"That was, for regulars, a highlight for them - it used to make some people cry."

There will also be a memorial for Simon around a stone gathered from the top of nearby Cairnsmore of Carsphairn.

"We are going to go up and collect a stone - as large as we can manage," said Liz.

"People are being asked to bring a stone from wherever they are coming from and place it round the memorial stone which I think reflects Simon's love of travel."

And it is hoped, after this year, Knockengorroch can continue for some time to come.

"Having a festival on our land meant the land was being looked after," said Liz.

"Stewardship of the land was important to Simon."