The Towards Light team:
Katherine Pogson, writing PhD in Sustainable Fashion Centre at LCF, moth-fancier, textiles artist
Claire Shovelton, CHROMA Producer, photographer and visuals artist (writing this blog)
Stuart King, clarinettist and Artistic Director of CHROMA
Caroline Balding, violin
Chris Allan, cello
Towards Light in Fair Isle supported by:
Classic Fair Isle
The Chapman Trust
The Hugh Fraser Foundation
The Hope Scott Trust
The William Syson Foundation
Thursday 23 Sep - travel day
Early start to get to London City Airport for 06:00, and the first of three planes heading North.
Plane #1 - 06:55 London City to Glasgow (where we eat breakfast)
Plane #2 - 10:25 Glasgow to Sumburgh
then a hour-long and very picturesque bus ride from the Southern tip of mainland Shetland to the capital Lerwick, where we settle ourselves in a couple of sofas at the arts centre Mareel cafe for lunch. I phone Tingwall airport to check if the weather window is holding for the islander plane out to Fair Isle (it is, just, after concerns about storms … with the help of Robin at the Shetland Tourist Board I did have beds on standby just in case we got stuck).
On the way out to catch the taxi to Tingwall airport we bump into our old friend Jonathan Ritch (Head of Production at Mareel), and rapidly catch up, hearing about the Bigton Kirk being bought by the community, starting a plot to bring CHROMA there soon.
Plane #3 - the 8-seater islander plane from Tingwall to Fair Isle. We are in luck - it arrives from Foula in time to get us to Fair Isle, with the weather closing in behind us.
the islander plane
We arrive at the air strip to a small crowd of folk - our hosts, and those going out on the plane. It is a small whirlwind of hellos and hugs - we wave the plane off before dispersing to our host homes.
After the last 18 months, a years’ postponement for the trip and all the challenges of booking travel for 5 people + a cello seat during the opening-up period - when all the call centres fell over under the strain (hurra for the BA twitter team, who sorted the cello seat out in the end after 6 months of trying!) - and the endless lateral flow testing - finally arriving in Fair Isle is joyful, a relief, almost triumphant.
We made it!