John Lennon Festival Shines On UK Awards Night

"I always felt free in Scotland," said John Lennon.

That freedom was shared by artist and audience alike earlier this year at a Festival in Durness named in tribute to the much-loved musician, writer and peace activist. In spirit and body, family, friends and fans of John Lennon came together in the Scottish Highlands for three days of music, poetry, drama and more - under the Northern Lights.

Last night, at a ceremony in London, England, the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival was named "Best New Festival" at the UK Festival Awards - joining long-standing celebrants, such as the Isle of Wight and Glastonbury festivals, on the winner's podium. Hearty congratulations are due Festival Coordinator Mike Merritt and his team, and to all the people. Imagine ( :

Singer-songwriter Allison Crowe's honoured and delighted to be Canada's musical ambassador to the event, sharing the stage and experience with an eclectic line-up, including: the original Quarrymen (John's skiffle group which evolved into The Beatles); contemporary UK chart-toppers Nizlopi; premiere Scottish jazzer Todd Gordon and his combo; Britain's most popular living poet and playwright Carol Ann Duffy (second only to William Shakespeare among university-age readers); punk poet John Cooper Clarke; members of the Royal Academy of Music; all together with the Queen's Master of Music, composer/conductor Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (in a joyful musical triumph, his first public performance in 15 years).

During the Festival in Durness in late September, John's family gathered for the dedication of a simple plaque - now on the family croft above the waters and sands of Sango Bay. It says: "John Lennon 1940-1980, Musician & Songwriter, lived here".

Och aye. He's living there still.

In My Life

John Lennon Northern Lights Festival - in review

The Scotsman, "Scotland's national newspaper", gives the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival four-out-of-four stars and this delightful review:

The Scotsman Tue 2 Oct 2007

LIGHTING UP DURNESS IN LENNON'S MEMORY

THE JOHN LENNON NORTHERN LIGHTS FESTIVAL ****
VARIOUS VENUES, DURNESS

SITUATED closer to Oslo than Liverpool, it's easy to see why John Lennon spent so much of his youth in Durness. With its white, sandy beaches and picture-perfect mountainous terrain, a story hides behind almost every rock in this remote village in the north-west highlands. The Northern Lights - the only thing to get a Scotsman to stand outside without a coat in late September - made an appearance, but the real magic was going on under the sky, as people from all around the world gathered to pay homage to Lennon's spirit.

At the Sango Sands Oasis, Lennon's first band, The Quarrymen, delighted onlookers with a skiffle set and stories about John while giving people in the audience a chance to play with them on washboard.

Meanwhile, a mile down the road at Smoo Cave - a spectacular smugglers' cove believed to be the abode of spirits who guard the entrance to the netherworld - there was the surreal sight of Mr Boom. An entranced group of kids sat between the limestone cliffs as the one-man-band entertainer took them to another planet.

A stone's throw away at the village hall, Canadian angel Alison Crowe gave one of the weekend's most magical moments, earning one of few encores for her solo rendition of Lennon's In My Life (a song inspired by Durness).

Students from the Royal Academy of Music injected new life into the Beatle's work later on with new, inspired arrangements of Norwegian Wood and Imagine. Their mentor, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, however - making his first public appearance in 15 years - played an ingenious number called Clouds on a badly-tuned piano borrowed from the local bookshop.

He wrote it, Davies said, when he was 11 years old. You could almost imagine an 11-year-old John Lennon listening to it in wonder too.