Skye Live Festival takes Glastonbury-style break for a year to protect 'beautiful site' and reduce environment impact

The Skye Live Festival will not be returning to its home at 'The Lump' in Portree until May 2021 to help protect its site in Portree.

Organisers of Skye Life Festival have announced that the event, which is staged on a peninsula overlooking Portree Harbour, will not be taking planned as expected this September.

They have announced that "essential groundworks" need to be carried out at the "beautiful site", Am Meall, which is also known as "The Lump," before the festival will return in an early-May slot in the calendar.

The "remedial work" is said to be needed to tackle drainage problems at the site, which critics say has provided one of the most spectacular backdrops for a music festival in Scotland in recent years.

The festival team say they will also be looking at ways to "further reduce its environmental impact" before it is staged again.

The news emerged just days after the release of a new BBC Scotland documentary about the festival, which has programmed a mix of pop, rock, folk, electronica and dance music acts since it was launched in 2015.

The fifth event last September played host to The Waterboys, Optimo, Peat & Diesel and Auntie Flo, the DJ and producer who won the Scottish Album of the Year Award while he was appearing at the event.

Django Django, Public Service Broadcasting, King Creosote, C Duncan, Capercaillie and Andrew Weatherall have all appeared in previous years, along with Skye favourites Peatbog Faeries, Mylo and Niteworks, and Skye-born stunt cyclist Danny MacAskill.

A statement from the festival said: "Following a spectacular sell-out fifth edition in 2019, Skye Live Festival today announced it will be taking a break in 2020 to allow for essential groundworks on its site, Am Meall, in Portree.

"The break will also see the festival return to its original spot in the calendar, kicking off the summer season with new dates in early May to be announced in the coming months.

"Organisers will be taking the time to continue to improve the event experience for customers as well as looking at ways to further reduce its environmental impact.

Director Niall Munro, one of the founders of the festival, said: "We’re looking forward to building on last year’s event where the atmosphere in Portree was electric and The Lump at its most magical yet.

"Returning to the start of summer will also hopefully capture more of that with the weather often the best of the year."