However, the amount of money being spent on the event has caused upset among the local people in the Shetland Islands.
Residents of the Scottish islands believe there is too much money being thrown at an event that will last only one week and will not recover the £5 million being spent on the event.
The news editor of the Shetland Times, Jim Tait, said: ‘There are people here who are strongly opposed to the Island Games because they cannot see how they are going to benefit the islands.
The feeling we are getting is that people are aware that the games are happening, but they just see them lasting one week and not recovering the millions spent.’ A little known fact about the Shetland Islands is that the northernmost part of Britain has reserves of £300 million from an oil reserve which was discovered in the 1970s.
This money is invested around the world and proceeds from it are invested into a charitable fund for the benefit of the islands.
