Ullapool's Loopallu event, just three years old, remains small but perfectly formed and its bands and its atmosphere are both close to the hearts of the local community, finds Olaf Furniss
IT'S a four-hour drive from the Central Belt, takes even longer to reach by public transport and, with the Gulf Stream passing nearby, there is every chance of rain. Yet since its creation in 2005, Ullapool's Loopallu Festival has been graced by hou
sehold names including Franz Ferdinand, Alabama 3, The Stranglers and, this year, The Levellers and Echo & The Bunnymen.
Moreover, it is the festival of choice of veteran BBC broadcasters Janice Long and Mark Radcliffe, the latter coming up to play with his band, Family Mahone, on an annual basis.
"It's like a great party you feel glad you've been invited to," says Radcliffe, who cites the warmth of the audiences as a key part of the experience and is undeterred by the prospect of rain. "We deliberately don't pack waterproof clothing. If the weather is bad you've got an excuse to stay in the pub."
The 2,500-capacity event, which takes place in a large tent erected on the edge of Loch Broom, was the brainchild of Ullapool-based promoter Robert Hicks and the band Hayseed Dixie, who have carved out a cult following for their country and western versions of rock classics.
Investing his savings and relying on early ticket sales for cash flow, Hicks enlisted an army of friends, who took time off from day jobs as joiners, nurses and officers of the law, to help out.
And while it is primarily a festival geared towards entertaining the local community, the range of visitors hailing from further afield is in keeping with Ullapool's Norse origins and, until the 1990s, its status as a regular port of call for factory ships from as far away as the Soviet Union and Nigeria.
This year's international delegation included four Irish youths expertly hustling for drinks, a journeyman from the Black Forest following the tradition of leaving his home town for three years after completing his apprenticeship, and impressed Canadian travellers Jason and Julie.
The couple, from British Columbia, found Loopallu through an internet search of festivals in Scotland and incorporated the event into their itinerary.
"It's fun to see people so passionate about music," says Julie. "Even the police are super-friendly."
Northern Constabulary's contingent even includes a plainclothes officer who actually looks like a festival-goer, although he has still to learn that regular revellers don't listen to their iPods five metres from the main tent.
For such a mellow festival, the police presence seems rather, er, present, but then one of the UK's biggest drugs hauls – chronicled in the book White Gold – featured several Ullapool residents.
However, at Loopallu the general drug of choice is beer, and the local hostelries stock an impressive range. One of the huge advantages here is that it is possible to nip to the pub from the festival site, in the same amount of time it takes to get to the toilets at other events.
And when the main area closes at 11pm, the music carries on for another three hours at several bars in downtown Ullapool.
Christened The Fringe, this part of the festival has developed a life of its own and has an atmosphere equivalent to watching your team score a winning goal – all night. Moreover, it contributes to the £700,000 which Loopallu generates for the local economy, according to an economic impact survey carried out in 2006.
Although the revellers don't tend to visit the charming Ullapool Museum, housed in a former church, or pop into the well-stocked Ullapool Bookshop, it is not just the licensed premises which benefit from the festival.
According to John Lavelle at the Northwest Outdoors shop, his takings treble during Loopallu, with camping accessories always a big seller, and sunglasses and hats perennially popular, regardless of the weather.
"If it rains in Ullapool, we're the only shop that's happy," he jokes.
Lavelle also sells tickets for the festival and acts as an informal information line for telephone inquiries.
"People get really excited about the festival, especially the schoolkids. They're talking about it months in advance," he says.
This is corroborated by Mr Harrison, the headteacher at Ullapool High School: "It's like the last afternoon before the Christmas holidays."
Hicks is a strong believer that the festival should feature acts that will appeal to the villagers, something borne out on the first evening of this year's event. Although Friday's headliners, The Levellers, are well received, it is clear the Vartesy Boys, whose Celtic party music is reminiscent of the Pogues, are the big hit with the locals.
And while the Red Hot Chilli Pipers descend from impressive piped rock medley into a cheesy Coldplay cover and subsequently Flower Of Scotland, there is no denying that their packed show is much better than the soulless performance by Echo & The Bunnymen.
The Saturday headliners wrote some of the best songs of the Eighties, but the audience seems to like these more than frontman Ian McCulloch, who is dressed like Yoda from The Empire Strikes Back and comes across like the irritating guy at parties whom nobody wants to talk to.
Fortunately, many of the other bands on the bill, including Scottish acts Broken Records, King Creosote and Attic Lights, appear much more happy to be at Loopallu. For Attic Lights, it is the third time they have played the festival and guitarist Jamie Houston even held his stag night in Ullapool earlier this year.
"It's just the right size and it's a great farewell to the summer," he says of the Loopallu. "The surrounding scenery is amazing and you're really welcomed; everyone has a smile."
Apart from getting Long and Radcliffe to curate a future Loopallu and, if the community is in favour, extending it by a day, Hicks says his main goal is simply for the festival to continue.
In many respects its size could be what helps it to prevail where other events have failed in the past year. With the limited capacity of the purpose-built campsite, Loopallu cannot grow beyond its current 2,500 size, which ensures that the organisers can always offer good conditions and a great service.
That, and the unique atmosphere, will ensure that the long journey is always worth making.
PROFILEA TWO-STAR Michelin restaurant first brought promoter Robert Hicks to north-west Scotland, when he took a job as a live-in waiter at the Altnaharrie Inn on the banks of Loch Broom in 1994
Two years later he quit, but caught the "Ullapool bug" after spending a week in the village across the water and so took a job as a barman in the Arch Inn, which he now co-owns.
"Within a week of starting I knew half the village," he says.
Before long Hicks was booking local bands to play the village pubs, often subsidising the gigs with second jobs, which included repairing bridges, mussel farming and driving snow ploughs.
After selling out a gig by an American band, he began to get calls from agents, and was also recruited to book the acts for the goNorth showcase event and the Belladrum festival.
Then in 2005 he decided to launch Loopallu in conjunction with Hayseed Dixie, and followed it with Rockness in 2006, which is now become Scotland's second-largest music festival.
His new status as a major promoter propelled him to number 18 in Scotland On Sunday's "most eligible bachelor" rankings, an honour he has relinquished since meeting fellow festival organiser Helen Chalmers.
Originally from Cornwall, Hicks, 37, is still based in Ullapool and is startled by his progress in business.
"I was putting in an offer for a band to play Rockness last year," he recalls. "It amounted to more than my turnover in the first two years."
