The Fèis Ìle Festival is an annual event celebrating the beautiful Isle of Islay. Spanning across 10 days, the event is a gathering of whisky and Islay lovers alike. The festival showcases the culture and spirit of the island and supports local charities, organisations and artists. We were delighted to be approached by the Fèis Ìle Committee this year as they launched a competition to design a tartan for the festival.
Open to local schools, the Fèis Ìle Committee asked pupils to design a tartan to represent the festival and the best of Islay. We sent the Committee some tartan samples to give the schools some inspiration to get started.
The competition had a great response from the local children and the Committee were blown away with the amazing entries. The team had this to say, “We’ve had entries on paper, painted, weaved, crayons, digital entries and more. The creativity and thought behind the ideas have been wonderful to see!” We were delighted to hear that the pupils were so enthusiastic about the competition. It wasn’t going to be easy for the Fèis Ìle team to pick a winner!
The tartan design winner, Pippa Hannett was revealed at the festival’s opening night. Pippa’s design is composed of softs blues and greens with pops of yellow and white. Pippa’s tartan perfectly represented the joy of the Fèis Ìle Festival and scenery of the island itself. Runners up Kate Tuite and Freddy Munro also received certificates for their fantastic designs. The Committee gifted each school £250 as a thank you for taking part.
The new Fèis Ìle tartan will make its debut at the festival in 2024 and has already been recorded on the Scottish Tartan Register. We look forward to seeing what tartan treats we can help the Committee create with their new design.
A huge thank you to the members of the Fèis Ìle team for choosing us to help bring their winning tartan to life. We can’t wait to see it at the festival next year. If you’re feeling inspired to create your own unique tartan for your company, charity or family, visit our Tartan Design Page.