Inverness Battle of the Bands 2025: SNAP charity showcases local music talent at An Seòmar
Inverness music fans are in for a treat as local venue An Seòmar hosts its first-ever Battle of the Bands - a brand-new event celebrating homegrown musical talent while raising funds for one of the city’s most valued charities.
Organised by SNAP (Special Needs Action Project), the two-night competition takes place on Sunday, October 26 and November 2, bringing together eight acts from across the Highlands.
Heather Davidson, Communications Officer at SNAP, explained the inspiration behind the event: “Here at SNAP, we support young people and adults across the Highlands with additional and complex needs,” she explained. “Our aim is to make social, leisure and development opportunities accessible for the people we support.
“Through our Battle of the Bands, we have managed to access a new network of individuals who may not have otherwise known about the work that we do.
Many of our young people love music, singing and dancing. This is why so many of our events like Stars in Their Eyes and our annual SNAP Christmas Spectacular are centred around the arts and bringing joy to audiences through music. We want all of our events to reflect our young people and since they love to sing-a-long and boogie to bands like 'The Old Fools' who have kindly visited our clubs in the past and played for them, we thought this was a brilliant way to raise awareness for SNAP.”
The competition
What began as a small fundraiser quickly struck a chord with local musicians. When applications opened, SNAP received 33 entries from bands eager to perform.
Supported by An Seòmar, each night will feature four bands performing 30-minute sets, with winners chosen by audience vote. Event partners have also provided prizes to help the winning acts take their next steps in the music scene.
“The support of An Seomar has been instrumental in making this happen,” Ms Davidson added. “It is amazing to see a local business wanting to do good and support us in this journey. Without them this event would simply not exist.”
The line-up
Round one of the Battle of the Bands, on Sunday, October 26, will feature The Tuesday Accord, The Idiotix, Cameron Ferguson, and Haud At. The second round, on Sunday, November 2, will see Monkey Grip, Wyldkat, Riff Bank South, and Reliever take to the stage.
Among those taking stage for the first round is Graeme Gilchrist of The Tuesday Accord. He said the band is “over the moon” to be involved - especially given the huge range of local talent in Inverness.
He added: “Getting onstage with pals is usually enough to look forward to in a gig, but appearing onstage am An Seòmar, Inverness's newest music venue, is gonnae feel great.
“We're also stoked to be in a position to support SNAP. They're a great organisation that offer involvement, belonging, kindness and care to so many of the area's very special young people. We're on board!”
Cameron Ferguson, also set to perform on Sunday, added:
“It feels really special to get to dedicate our music and energy to something as wonderful as SNAP, hopefully raising some money and attention for them so they can continue to help out kids that need it.
“We all have people in our life that face access challenges, and know the difference that organisations like this can make. We’re glad to be able to help out in our own way! Our music has brought us together, and hopefully by putting on a great night, we can do the same for others.
“We really just love playing together, and are just looking forward to another chance to do it for such a good cause!”
Alan McIntyre of Haud At added: “My wife is from Inverness and used to work at the Corbett centre and a lot of the young adults also went to Snap -so we know first hand how valuable this service is for the local community.
“It will be amazing to play in a proper live music venue. In between being 3 dads in our 40s, we are aiming to be your mums new favourite band and bring blues rock to the masses!”