29th Shetland Folk Festival: 30^th April to 3^rd May 2009....

This year's Shetland Folk Festival, often regarded as the granddaddy of UK folk festivals, sees yet another eclectic and innovative line up of visiting artistes – one that that currently represents more than eleven nationalities!

As the UK's most northerly folk festival, this event continues to be regarded a prestigious event for performers, locals and visitors alike – and it's 100% organised by volunteers!  The "sessions" in the Festival Club, Islesburgh are often regarded as the best and most unique in the world whilst visiting artistes are regularly dumbfounded by the quantity and quality of local musicians that these remote isles have to offer.

This year, the organising committee are thrilled to announce a line up that includes Cara Dillon – the multi award winning vocalist from Northern Ireland who performs with music collaborator and husband Sam Lakeman.  The 29^th event will also see the long awaited return of Shooglenifty who will perform for one night only on Friday 1^st and a Shetland debut for the Finnish-Norwegian fiddling powerhouse group Frigg.  Crossing the Atlantic Ocean to put in an appearance are two Canadian outfits –Vishten brings together four young Acadians who are passionate about the music and dance of their regions of Prince Edward Island and the Magdelen islands whilst Madison Violet are a Toronto based band whose Americana style of music comes loaded with harmonies, lots of stringed instruments and beautiful lyrics.  Also clocking up the air miles is the lively Asturian roots band Felpeyu as well as the wild duo of Australian blues, Hat Fitz and Itchy who build their performances through a series of frenzied, almost out of control crescendos!

Most visiting musicians will be in Shetland for the festival's duration, playing at different venues throughout the isles alongside fantastic local acts such as Hom Bru and Maggie Adamson.  As usual, the Festival will conclude with the famous "Festival Foy" events on Sunday 3rd. These "Foy" concerts are unique to Shetland and give audiences an opportunity of seeing all visiting acts in one evening. Held over three venues in Shetland's capital, Lerwick, the visiting artistes are shuffled between halls by mini bus and perform in each venue for around 15 minutes.  It sounds crazy but it works!

With slightly reduced travel distances to this esteemed event are 5 other UK based acts.  From Scotland, there is multi award winning singer songwriter Emily Smith who recently won the accolade of Scots Singer of the year at the Trad Music Awards.  Returning to the Festival is popular Orkney duo Saltfishforty as well as the four first class performers who comprise the England based New Rope String Band.  This act's exuberant theatrics, boundless energy and gorgeous music are certain to wow audiences.  The Jani Lang Band are Aberdeen based but are a unique collaboration of Hungarian, Scottish, Irish and Egyptian musicians driven by an enthusiasm for Balkan and Gypsy music.  Completing the UK contingent is an act featuring musicians from Scotland, reland, Cape Breton and California – the phenomenal instrumental arsenal of Dàimh who are now joined by award winning gaelic singer Calum Alex MacMillan from Lewis.

As if this wasn't enough, festival organisers have also booked two other fantastic European acts.  Award winning Danish band ZAR breathe new life into old songs and tunes from the rich Danish tradition whilst the four-member Brock McGuire Band comprises the very best of Irish musicianship.  What a treat!

The Festival Committee are now appealing for sponsorship for the 29^th event.  A number of early sponsors have already been secured including Baker Tilly, Delta Marine Ltd and the CHC Search and Rescue SAR (H) Team "Soteria".  However, many more sponsorship opportunities are available including for specific bands, particular concerts, the Festival Club and educational events.  For more information on sponsorship or to request a sponsorship pack, please contact Mhari Pottinger at info@shetlandfolkfestival.com.

So, if you're tempted to make your way up to the most far-flung folk festival in the UK, you may be interested in knowing that Festival memberships go on sale on the 23^rd January and that its unofficial opening is actually on Wednesday the 29^th April, on an overnight ferry somewhere in the middle of the North Sea.  An event in itself!

For more information on this festival, including all the visiting acts biographies with sound samples please visit: www.shetlandfolkfestival.com .

Well, I think the post Shetland Folk Festival Blues have now just about disappeared and I'm able to write a peerie blog about how it all went.

The 28th Shetland Folk Festival has to be one of the smoothest run events yet and the organising committee have been getting plenty of plaudits for the first class and varied line up of visiting artistes.  Thanks to all visiting acts for making the 28th Shetland Folk Festival an extremely difficult line up to beat in future years!!! And of course the local artistes - they just seem to get better and better.  You do Shetland proud and we thank you greatly for your huge contribution to the success of the overall event.  This year, the organising committee made the decision to have no visiting comperes and instead decided that we would do the introductions amongst ourselves.  The overwhelming consensus is that this was a worthwhile experiment and it went down a treat with audiences.  PHEW! 

There have been quite a few write ups about the Festival.  The Shetland Times newspaper did a brilliant write up and their articles on various concerts throughout the Festival can be found on the special features page of their online paper

http://www.shetlandtoday.co.uk/shetlandtimes/contentmonthly.asp?CategoryID=27

Thanks also to Sue Wilson for her great write up in the Scotsman and to Lieve for the fanstastic photos that went with it (which sadly aren't on the online version posted below.....but they were awesome!)

http://living.scotsman.com/features/Fishers-of-folk.4055291.jp

Thanks to Lieve for providing the Festival Committee with FANTASTIC images of the 28th annual event.  You can already find some of these photos on this myspace site and her own one.  I hope that this will not be your one and only Shetland Folk Festival experience?!  Hmmm I have a funny feeling you might be hooked though......Thanks also to all the local photographers for their contributions - especially to Billy, Craig and Dale for your displays at the Festival Club.  They looked brilliant. 

With the Shetland Folk Festival, there are SOOOOOOO many people that need to be thanked because without them - there would be no Festival.  I honestly think that what makes this event so special is that it is a 100% voluntary run affair and it involves the whole community. 

Thanks to all the accommodation hosts who keep the visiting artistes in their homes for the duration of the event, thanks to all our financial sponsors and to our many and varied volunteers (raffle sellers, Club stewards, merchandise folks, the transport gang, the Lerwick Boating Club who organise the bar and to Sonny for making sure we had some Real Ale too, and to the Rugby Club who do the late night shift at the Club).  Thanks to Islesburgh and all their staff for making the Festival Club so brilliant.  Thanks to all the community halls and all their volunteers for use of their venue and for feeding the artistes.  Thanks also to the Clickimin, Lerwick British Legion and the Shetland Hotel for being so accommodating to our events too.  A special thanks to all the PA and lighting crew at all our concerts and venues - you did a wonderful job.  And to Alan too for being the ever welcoming party host!

Most importantly though, thanks to those that continue to support the Festival through purchasing tickets and memberships (and raffle tickets!!).  Like previous years, the 28th Shetland Folk Festival was a virtual sell out and our thanks goes to you all for being such fantastic audiences.

I'm sure there are plenty of others that deserve thanks but I'm already getting too emotional writing this so I'll stop here.  The dates for the 29th Shetland Folk Festival will be 30th April to 3rd May.  Yippee - let's start counting the days.

Smoorikans tae you aa!

Da Committee x 

Hello

If you are a band/artiste that would like to be considered for performing at the Shetland Folk Festival then please send a copy of a recent CD with biographical information and contact details to the address below. Most artistes are booked by January for that year's festival.

Send CD's and information to:

Davie Henderson
Visiting Artistes
SFFS
5 Burns Lane
Lerwick
Shetland
Scotland
ZE1 0EL

Please note that the organising committee will only consider bands that actually physically send us material to listen/read through. Online requests (through email, website or myspace) are generally not enough for us to make a judgement on!!!

Thanks,

The organising committee.

Woo!    

28th Shetland Folk Festival: 1^st to 4^th May 2008

The provisional line up for the 28^th Shetland Folk Festival has been announced and with visiting artistes from at least 9 different countries, it looks to be one of the most eclectic and international lineups yet.

Clocking up most air miles will be Hanggai who are pioneers of China's folk rock scene, as well as Australian singer songwriter Rory Ellis, who is certain to captivate audiences with his powerful vocal command.  Crossing the Atlantic Ocean from the United States are four musically diverse outfits.  Andy McKee is recognised as one of today's finest young fingerstyle guitarists, reaching fame through both his live performances and his featured You Tube clips that have achieved well over 10 million hits.  Katy Moffatt has a career spanning 30 years and has earned a substantial cult following among roots-music fans for her blend of country, folk, rock, pop and blues.  Brother Mule are an acoustic power trio featuring Brian Wicklund, Ben Winship and Eric Thorin and topping off the American contingent is fiddler and folk singer, Lissa Schneckenburger who embraces a diverse palette of musical influences whilst staying true to her New England roots.  The line up also includes Canadian representation in the form of fantastic Quebec group Le Vent Du Nord, who have exploded onto the folk scene since their inception in 2002.

From closer to home, the organisers are thrilled to announce that the Peatbog Faeries will be putting in a long overdue appearance at the Festival.  Based on the Isle of Skye, this band have been described as the future of Celtic dance music and "the most pumping, uplifting and exciting Scottish fusion you're ever likely to come across".  The Peatbogs will appear at the Clickimin for one night only (Friday 2nd) with plenty of space allocated for dancing (and sitting if you prefer!)  Also flying the Saltire are Scottish firebrands Breabach, who are one of the most talked about new acts on the folk scene with their blend of double bagpipes, whistle, fiddle, song and Scottish stepdance.  The organising committee have also decided to invite back Orkney band Lazy Boy Chair following their huge popularity at last year's Festival.  Now known as The Chair and armed with copies of their new debut CD "Huinka", this band are certain to go down a storm once more.

Also with slightly reduced travelling distances to the most northerly Folk Festival in the UK are two English based acts.  The music of the Martin Harley Band draws on influences from old time blues to folk to world music whereas Quinteto Mambo Jambo serve up a highly flavourful mix of Latin dance floor styles including salsa and son, chachacha, cumbia, samba and rumba with influences of Congolese and other African sounds.

As if this wasn't enough, the Festival committee have booked a further three bands from different corners of Europe.  From Denmark, the Henrik Jansberg Band is comprised of some of the most talented young musicians on the Danish folk music scene.  Afion are an acoustic band from Croatia who brew a diversity of styles into their repertoire whereas the David Munnelly Band are one of the hottest new acts in the traditional Celtic music scene.  With their unique West Mayo style of playing, Irish button accordion wizard David Munnelly and his award winning band have been making waves on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Most visiting musicians will be in Shetland for the Festival's duration, playing at different venues throughout the isles alongside fantastic local acts such as Shoormal and Hom Bru.  As in previous years, there will be a series of workshops and other planned activities at the Festival Club in Lerwick with the four day event culminating with the farewell Foy extravaganza on the Sunday night where ticket holders have the opportunity of seeing most visiting acts in one night!   

Advance membership opens on January 11^th until the 29^th February.  For more information on membership, tickets, venues and the visiting artistes' biographies, please visit the Festival website at www.shetlandfolkfestival.com.

ALSO PLEASE NOTE

Hi there!

The 2008 line up will be revealed very soon

In the meantime, to keep you entertained we've put up some clips of last year's artistes.  Enjoy

http://www.shetlandfolkfestival.com/clips2007.php

Featuring Lazy Boy Chair, Crooked Still, Mary Black, Sharon Shannon, Terrafolk, Troy MacGillivray, Toy Hearts, Bodega and Ray Bonneville

Well folks, that's the 27th Shetland Folk Festival well and truly over (waaaa - come back everybody!!)

Post Festival Blues have now crept in...........

Despite the fact that the Festival was a day shorter this year, the 27th has been hailed a huge success.  All the visiting artistes were superb and the camaraderie amongst folks was amazing

The Local newspaper - The Shetland Times - have written some fantastic reviews.  You can find them by following this link

http://www.shetlandtoday.co.uk/shetlandtimes/contentmonthly.asp?CategoryID=27

And Sue Wilson did a great wee article in The Scotsman

http://living.scotsman.com/music.cfm?id=708832007

Sue did another fantastic piece for Hi Arts

http://www.hi-arts.co.uk/default.aspx.locid-hianewmp5.Lang-EN.htm

I suppose the main gripe this year is the number of people who left evening gigs before they were finished in order to get back to the Festival Club.  This is not only upsetting and insulting for the artistes on stage but also to us organisers.  Thinking caps on for next year folks!! 

Other than that, we (the organising committee) have been told by both punters and visiting artistes alike that this has been one of the best Festivals yet.  As organisers, it's sometimes difficult to assess how the event has gone (because you're too busy running around like blue arsed flies) but it's great to hear the feedback.  It makes all the hours, weeks, and months of effort (all done in our spare time may I add!) worthwhile.

If you're a myspace member, please do leave us a comment about this year's Festival!

Thanks has to go out to our huge pool of volunteers who make the Festival happen: The people who keep folks in their homes, the PA volunteers, the transport boys, the stewards, the rugby club, the merchandise and raffle sellers, the hall committees and of course the local artistes who share the stage with our visiting acts (thus making Shetland Folk Festival concerts so special)

Okay, I'm getting a lump in my throat writing this.  So instead of being sad, let the countdown begin for next year.

The dates of the 28th Festival are 1st-4th May 2008!  Whoopey

Some photos of this year's folk festival have been put up (thanks to Millgaet Media for use of these).  More photos will be following soon by Craig G Chapman Photography - watch this space

Thanks again to everyone 

Best wishes

Da Committee xxxx