Gria a Glasgow based band who only played their first gig only in February have won a coveted stage slot in the main arena at this summer's Hebridean Celtic Festival.

Gria are (left to right) Lana Elaine, Louise Bichan, Ceitlin LR Smith and Gemma Telfer

The Glasgow-based group were voted the best of 17 high quality entries for HebCelt’s One Step Further contest which was open to any young band or performer, aged between 18 and 25, playing a genre of music that reflects the general programming of the event.

Gria will now find themselves performing at the festival which runs from 17-20 July in Stornoway and will be headlined by Van Morrison, Dougie MacLean, Capercaillie, The Battlefield Band and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.

The girls - singer Ceitlin LR Smith, from Lewis; fiddler Louise Bichan, from Orkney; pianist Lana Elaine, from Shetland, and accordionist Gemma Telfer, from Northumberland - will showcase their mix of traditional and contemporary music when they perform live on Saturday, 20 July on the Island Stage. They will also receive £250 towards expenses.

The festival, which is celebrating its 18th anniversary this year, attracted an international audience of over 14,000 in 2012 and ticket sales this year are well ahead of target.

Ceitlin, 20, originally from Ness, said: “We were shocked to hear we had won the contest, being such a newly formed band, but we were over the moon about it.

“I've always wanted to play at HebCelt, being a local. We hope it'll get our name out there a bit more and give more people the opportunity to hear our music.”

The One Step Further contest was backed by acclaimed singer Julie Fowlis who was given one of her first opportunities to sing solo at a festival when she performed at HebCelt in 2003. She has since gone on to international stardom and sang on the soundtrack of the Oscar-winning Disney Pixar animated film Brave.

One of the first inductees to the HebCelt Hall of Fame and an ambassador for the event, Julie said: “Winning the One Step Further contest is a great achievement for a group that only started playing together in February, although the musicians are already experienced performers.

“Playing the main arena at HebCelt will provide them with a wonderful stage to bring their beautiful music to a much wider audience and I am sure they will use the experience to go on to even greater things in future.  I wish them all the best.”

HebCelt festival director, Caroline MacLennan, added: “Gria are a very young band but their musicians are extremely accomplished performers. The quality of their playing shone through in their entry and the judges were very impressed with their collective sound.

“The festival prides itself on helping to bring young talent from throughout the Celtic nations to a wider audience and hopefully this opportunity to play on the main stage will help Gria go on to great things in the music industry.”

Gria, who take their name from an adaptation of Grian, the Gaelic word for sun, got together at the end of last year. Ceitlin, Gemma and Lana attend the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formally known as the Royal Academy of Music and Drama) together.  Louise, a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, also played with Lana in a band called Dalamist.

Their first gig together was at Celtic Connections in February when they won the Danny Kyle Open Stage award and last month they played for the Scottish Government at Edinburgh Castle at a dinner for European chief officers.

In August they will play abroad for the first time as a band when they take part in the Festival Interceltique in Lorient, France, and they have gigs lined up supporting Manran and Treacherous Orchestra at the Glenfiddich Distillery, as well as the Orkney Folk Festival and St Magnus Festival also in Orkney.

The group have also been recording with plans to release an EP in the summer and their first album by the end of this year or early 2014.

The HebCelt line-up also includes Karine Polwart, Darrell Scott, Pete Roe, Paddy Callaghan, and local artists Iain Morrison, The Boy who Trapped the Sun and Face the West, as well as Dundee’s Anderson, McGinty, Webster, Ward & Fisher; Lau, voted ‘Best Group’ at this year’s Radio Two Folk Awards; Orcadian eight-piece The Chair; The Hot Seats, from Virginia; Manchester outfit The Travelling Band; Welsh band Rusty Shackle; Fatherson, The Dirty Beggars and Donald MacDonald & The Islands, from Glasgow, and Rose Parade, a four-piece from Ayr. Tickets for the festival are on sale here