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Some fifteen or twenty years ago or so, when Cape Breton traditional music was first rediscovered back in Scotland, some folks bought the notion that it was 'real' Scottish traditional music, untainted by outside influences. Now, those kinds of debates about what is and isn't really traditional make me want to run for cover ... but it's true that what you do have still on the island is an intimate connection between instrumental music and community dance, even amongst the foremost professional performers, folks like fiddlers and , which brings with it a fierce attention to time and a strident, straight-edged fiddle style, most often accompanied by piano.

That link between music and dance can be heard in many of this year's visiting festival guests too - the restless mouth music of Britanny's and the turbo-charged step dancing of Prince Edward Island quartet

Community is the bedrock of . There are 2000 local volunteers making it tick - driving vans, dressing venues and stage-managing - whilst wee wifies in remote island hamlets compete for the prestige of cooking the best supper ever for visiting musicians. There's a spot where the deep fried turkey is legend.

But for all the warmth and couthiness that makes it special, the festival has the musical vision of Glasgow's commissioning large-scale international collaborative pieces, this year from Galician piper , and featuring Cuban pipers and encouraging the writing of new work during the festival itself (I've just spent a week holed up in a former convent writing with four of Canada's finest folk songwriters). But more of that later ...

Karine