Grannies get trollied at Inverness Street Festival

Granny Turismo.

SHOULD you wander downtown next week and spot Elvis sweeping the pavement or have a bunch of elderly women roar past on souped up shopping trollies, there is no cause for concern.

You are not cracking up – you have just wandered into the second Inverness Street Festival.

Returning to the Highland Capital on Wednesday, the festival brings four days of surreal – and free – entertainment to the streets and shopping centres of Inverness.

"We had a great reaction from the public and it brought a lot of artists to Inverness that had never been seen here before," Mike Smith, manager of Inverness Business Improvement District (BID), said of last year's taster event.

"This year we have more artists and last year we didn't have the musical element we will have on Saturday. We will also have more of the artists moving around rather than static. We want to move the public around too and if the weather is bad, we have the option of getting them undercover.

"I'm also very keen on performers going into businesses and shops. We don't just want them to be on the streets."

The Street Theatre Festival is jointly supported by Inverness BID and the Eastgate Shopping Centre with the joint aim of encouraging more visitors into the heart of Inverness.

"It's half term and we want to entertain people and bring them into the city centre," Smith explained.

"These acts we are featuring this year are the cream, the people you find at Belladrum or street festivals in Italy."

With music, dance and slapstick all covered by the participants, the artists include groups who will involve members of the public or move around the city centre, though performances will be centred on the High Street, Victorian Market and Eastgate Centre.

Returning after proving a highlight of last year's inaugural festival is the world's first and only shopping trolley dance team, Granny Turismo, who perform daredevil dance moves astride souped up shopping trolleys and last week featured on CBBC talent show "The Slammer".

Joining them is the Glasgow-based Elvis Cleaning Company, veterans of Belladrum and the Highland Festival of the 1990s, who sweep the streets and clean windows while dressed as the King of Rock and Roll. The Elvises also have another guise as the Spiv Traders – sharp dressed dodgy dealers who will offer the Inverness public all manner of bargain items.

"The other walkabout company is Stickleback Plastics and they also have two sets of characters," Smith continued.

"The first is St Joan's Ambulance, who are a bunch of desperate ambulance people who go around the streets looking for people to treat. The other is Two Left Feet – Barry and Yvonne, a pair of ballroom dancers who are not that successful, but will dance with anyone.

"We also have Sid Bowfin, who is one of our static acts. He's a fantastic musician and madcap comic. He will perform classical pieces in a good way – but take a long time to get there."

These six acts can be seen each day from Wednesday to Saturday, but on the final day of the festival they will also be joined by two other acts, local stilt walkers Fly Agaric and the eight-piece Puff Uproar Street Band, which was formed for Falkirk's street festival three years ago.

"We want to develop more locally and give local youngsters the opportunity to take part," Smith said, adding that this was something he hoped to develop next year and beyond.

He also encouraged local buskers, Inverness's resident street entertainers, to join in this year's event.

"The visiting entertainers absolutely love coming here," he added.

"The leader of Granny Turismo is English, but he plays the fiddle, so at night he was in Hootananny's playing in sessions. They like Inverness and they like the people. In a sense it's almost like being on holiday for them. They are performing for new people and seeing a new place."

The Inverness Street Theatre Festival gets under way at 12.30pm on Wednesday with Granny Tursimo on the High Street and St Joan's Ambulance in the Eastgate Centre, followed by the Elvis Cleaning Company in the Victorian Market at 12.45pm. Performances continue regularly until 3.35pm on Wednesday and Thursday and from 12.45pm to 3.45pm on Friday and Saturday.