Del Amitri to headline Scottish Hebridean island’s music festival 30 years after town hall gig

Million-selling pop-rock band Del Amitri is to return to Stornoway

Scottish pop-rock favourites Del Amitri are to headline Scotland's biggest island music festival – 30 years after staging a sold-out town hall gig at the same location.

Del Amitri will be topping the bill on the final night of the Hebridean Celtic Festival on the Isle of Lewis in July.

The Glasgow band, who have sold more than six million albums to date, will be following in the footsteps of previous headliners The Proclaimers, The Waterboys, Runrig, Deacon Blue, KT Tunstall and Van Morrison.

Del Amitri will be joined by Irish music star Sharon Shannon, Highland “neo-trad” outfit Elephant Sessions, all-female group Kinnaris Quintet, local heroes Face the West and Willie Campbell, Gaelic singing trio Sian and Canadian step-dance group The Lumber Jills.

Del Amitri performed in Stornoway's town hall in 1994 during a Highlands and islands tour staged on the back of the success of their hit album Change Everything, which reached second place in the UK top 40.

The festival was launched two years later in the grounds of Lews Castle in Stornoway and has since generated an estimated £34 million for the local economy. The main festival site attracted a record overall audience of 19,500 this summer, an 8 per cent increase on the 2022 event.

Programmer Michelle Shields said: “We are delighted to reveal the first wave of artists who will be joining us at HebCelt 2024, which the team aims to make our best yet. We remain deeply appreciative of the unwavering support we receive from our community and loyal festivalgoers. We were truly overwhelmed with the response to our early bird ticket release earlier this year – they flew out the door.”