St Andrew’s Day Virtual Music Festival Attracts Viewers from 30 Countries

It was seen as Scotland’s largest St Andrew’s Day virtual gig this year, supported by 39 Scottish artists performing over 10 hours, and attracting viewers from over 30 countries around the world.

Frontline Festival Scotland held its inaugural event on a day which is celebrated globally and is known to everyone as St Andrew’s Day. A day for celebrating Scotland, it’s culture and its people which is why the ethos behind the event fitted so well with this special day.

Ceangail, organisers of the event, had the idea back in April of delivering a hybrid music event that would virtually bring together artists from all over Scotland, and then stream it online for viewers to enjoy from their homes.

Chris Richardson, MD at Ambassador Group Investments Division said, “To think that Frontline Festival Scotland was streamed into so many people’s homes was just fantastic. We were delighted to sponsor this hybrid event as there were so many similarities with our vision and passion for our Ambassador Brands, be that Ambassador Living or Investments. We care that it has been a difficult year for so many people and offering our support so the organiser could make this year’s event free to view was something we were delighted to do. It really was great to see so many Scottish grassroots bands performing alongside some of the more established artists. Well done to them all.”

During these difficult times of covid-19, the social enterprise wanted the event to be as inclusive as possible so, with the backing in place, they streamed the event for free this year. The gesture was obviously welcomed, as 122,612 viewers from over 30 countries watched their favourite Scottish bands perform and celebrate St Andrew’s Day.

Paul Bush OBE, Director of Events, said: "Frontline Festival was a fantastic celebration of Scottish talent and a great way to mark St Andrew’s Day 2020. We were delighted to have supported the organisers through Scotland's Events Recovery Fund in delivering such a positive virtual event in what has been a hugely challenging year for the industry.”

In a year when the events industry has been decimated because of the pandemic, this event has been seen as a triumph, shining a positive light over Scotland and all who were involved. Part of the social enterprises focus is to connect communities through its project delivery so not only did this event provide a platform, all be it virtually, for 39 Scottish artists to perform on, it benefited 7 delivery team businesses and created awareness and some funds for 4 of Scotland’s frontline emergency service charities. As any charity knows, keeping their name in front of people is key so with the campaign reaching over 2.3m people around the world it will hopefully encourage more donations to be made on top of the £1711 already raised for these charities.

One of the 4 charities to benefit was SPBF and Gary Brown, Operations Manager said, “The Scottish Police Benevolent Fund would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in making Frontline Festival Scotland a great success. The fantastic support from the artists, ambassadors, event organisers, volunteers and sponsors has been truly humbling, and it was wonderful to see the event spread a little joy and music across the globe during such a difficult time for everyone. We are very grateful to all those who kindly made donations, your kindness will help us continue our work supporting Police officers, staff and their families during times of hardship and need. Thank you for all your efforts and stay safe.”

Ceangail’s Founder and Chairperson Matt McGrandles added, “The delivery team did a fantastic job here. To think the event was pulled together and delivered within 6 months is quite an achievement for the team. The stats from it are quite outstanding, however, although Ceangail had the vision and idea to deliver an event, it couldn’t have been done without the backing from our Headline sponsor Ambassador Group and the support from EventScotland. I would like to thank both for their commitment to Ceangail and the Frontline Festival Scotland event. It has given us a strong footing to look at how we could deliver a 2021 event and I am sure the Ceangail team will relish the challenge.”

Ceangail CIC is a Project Management specialist based in Stirling that secures and delivers its own events as well as managing other large events. With over 20 years’ experience in event delivery, Ceangail is actively searching for new partners that would benefit from their services.