Artist Jennifer Cantwell reports back from the Big Fat Electric Ceilidh

Posted by Jennifer Cantwell - 20:40 on 04 September 2011

Feeling a bit hyped I headed into town on Friday to catch a gig set up by Inverness Old Town Art, working with skateboarders, Broken Wooden Toys at the Spectrum Centre, there was a day of art, workshops, general skateboard skatiness, bands and then an electronic ceilidh by Big Fat Electric in the Rose Street Carpark. The skaters and friends were doing a fundraiser at the Spectrum centre to build a new skatepark they've designed themselves and the spirit of guerilla DIY was very much presence in the energy in the building. I felt this most in the exhibition of artwork at the centre, photographs, textiles, paintings, paperworks and mixed media drawings on broken skateboards, all the work shown there exists outside the mainframe of the art gallery system and has the gung ho spirit of internet projects like Doodlers Anonymous. There is Beauty in the City and the Arthouse Co-op, carrying forward the backlash against corporate branding blandness and the soulless styling of everything and anything, this is work made from love and conviction, there's something very engaging about a piece of work thats made because the maker is compelled to make it and not as a standard response or a career move. Brilliant to see this spirit alive and kicking in Inverness. Pop-up exhibitions, IGLU, the new gallery HUNG, the appearance of street artists Rubber Bumpers and the glorious exhuberant large scale art events of IOTA are turning Inverness on its wee twee head and are actually giving me the grump that I moved away! Ho hum, Vive la Art Revolution! I'm in, I'll just have to get the bus.

The Rose Street Carpark has hosted a few gigs over the past year or so and unlikely as it might seem it does so very successfully. It feels like a weird and dark thing to be putting gigs on in a big concrete multi-storey carpark but instead of being freaky it actually adds unexpected life and freshness to the atmosphere, the same gig housed within safe walls would be stripped of some of the spark of adventure and buzz of excitement. There was a real awareness of the surroundings and the setting became part of the gig.

A Big Fat Electric Ceilidh is a ceilidh but not as you know it, done with electronic dance music, huge beats and traditional instruments laid over the top with a DJ a VJ and screens, projections and visuals. The dark low-ceilinged concrete carpark gave it an edgy indie feel and when it got introduced in Gaelic by a piper wearing a motorhead t-shirt the surrealness set in. A mixed crowd and everyone dancing and laughing in equal measure the feel-goodness was overflowing. Top tip for ceilidh dancing at an increased bpm is don't eat heavy food beforehand OR any wine whatsoever, not even 1 tiddly glass, 1 dance in with some hyper skate guy and I could feel all the blood draining from my face, its ok though, I digested my dinner and got my dance on by the 3rd tune and all was well. No injuries were suffered, not by me anyway, though halfway through the dashing white sergeant Susan from IOTA ripped a tendon up the back of her leg. She was being very stoic but I ran off to get ice remembering a friend who ended up in plaster for months doing the exact same thing, no pubs nearby and without any cash I thought the only ice-source might be in the kitchens of the Spectrum Centre, couldn't find the janitor so I sneaked in the back door and had a scout about in the kitchens, found the freezer, very good, no ice though but plenty of frozen stuff, then didn't the janny turn up + catch me mid rummage, I'm waving packets of frozen food at him and explaining about big fat ceilidh injuries but he's not buying into my scenario so confiscates the packet of frozen mango chips I'm holding and boots me out the door, its official, janitors are NOT the 4th emergency service!

I got back to the ceilidh in time to bump into two policewomen and drag one of them up for the Strip the Willow, in full copper rigout, hat, high vis vest, walkie talkie, the works! Good on her, she laughed her way through it. A funny end to a surreal funny night and one to remember. The crowd were left buzzing and delighted with themselves. A ceilidh in a carpark, it could have gone spectacularly wrong but instead it went spectacularly right. Going to the next one? Big Fat YES!

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