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Sharing music and memories through community spirit
A weekly reminisce group in the Scottish Highlands harnessed
the power of meaningful music with help from members of its community.
From musical quizzes and an appearance on local radio, the Whatever the Weather Wednesday group at Gairloch Museum pulled out all the stops to host a Musical Tea on Wednesday 20 September to mark National Playlist Day. Thanks to the generosity of local people, plans came together in perfect harmony.
Sarah Wright, Wellbeing Project Coordinator at Gairloch Museum, said that as plans for the Musical Tea were put in place, it became clear just what a wonderful community she lived in.
A group of volunteers and talented bakers made cakes and tasty treats for everyone. Viral Spark, a local shop, gave us old vinyl records for us to make cake stands, cake platters and individual cake plates. The museum cafe loaned us beautiful vintage cups and saucers which gave our Musical Tea a delightful, classy ambience. Viral Spark suggested decorating the walls with record covers and with that and some bling, we soon had a party feel. It really came together with flourish!
A great turnout with a passion for personal playlists
The event was publicised by a local radio station, Two Lochs, with the manager offering to run a show featuring a quiz listeners could join in with at home while talking about National Playlist Day and the Musical Tea at Gairloch Museum.
Every chair in the room was filled and the room was soon buzzing with chat as people met old friends and made new connections. We had three times as many people as we usually have at the group. We introduced the Playlist for Life resources and spent some time talking about our special songs and writing memories in the booklets. We provided leaflets in English and Gaelic. One lady took a dozen leaflets to share with her weekly knitting group so they could think about their personal playlists together. The quiz was quite a challenge but it was lovely to see people smiling and singing along with the song clips even if they couldn't name the artist. It was finger lickin', foot tappin', good craic!
If your community organisation would like to host a Musical Tea, more information and free resources are available here.
Find out more about Gairloch Museum’s Whatever the Weather Wednesdays events.
Thank you to the Scottish Power Foundation for supporting us to connect with underreached and underserved communities.
