Features / Accordion and fiddle festival another success
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ORGANISERS have declared the 27th Shetland Accordion and Fiddle Festival, which saw dance concerts take place from the south end to Yell, a success.
Speaking as the last few visitors were departing on Monday, festival committee member James Leask said it had been “another successful weekend”.
There were six concerts and dances spread across the isles on both Thursday and Friday, with venues including Ness Boating Club and public halls in Burravoe and Walls.
Over 600 folk came together to enjoy performances from 11 bands – six visiting and five local acts – at the festival’s centrepiece grand dance at Clickimin on Saturday night.
Around 50 musicians made up a total of 24 visiting acts filling venues the length and breadth of the islands – not to mention some 260 Shetland musicians maing up an impressive 38 local acts involved in the festival.
Natives were joined by musicians from across Scotland, Ireland and England, along with a welcome return from “popular and entertaining” Norwegian group Stri Torn, though Leask said the number of visitors to the festival from the mainland seemed to have been “a little bit less this year”.
“It’s probably a combination of things,” he said. “I think flights are extremely busy, and with all that’s going in Shetland just now I would imagine accommodation is a tricky one at the moment. There’s maybe varying factors, but numbers-wise it’s not been too bad.”
Leask said a Saturday morning youth concert at Islesburgh had been a big success, with schoolchildren playing before a packed hall: “That concert always features the young fiddler of the year, and a lot of the youngsters in fiddle groups are fairly coming on – a credit to the tuition in the schools.”
After a successful trial last year, the committee decided to continue with an informal youth session on the Saturday afternoon led by local musicians Peter Wood and Maggie Adamson along with visitors Andy Kain and Roya MacLean “encouraging the youngsters to get involved in sitting together and having a tune”, Leask said.
Islesburgh continue to serve as a successful hub for the festival, he added: “The amount of folk getting together and having impromptu sessions has been particularly good this year – a lot of musicians getting together and sharing their tunes.”
Artists and groups making their first festival appearance included the Gordon Brown Trio and the Raymond Chuchuk Band from Scotland, Kirkjuvagr from Orkney and Neansai ni Choisdealbha from Connemara in the west of Ireland.
The weekend – opened on Thursday by former committee member Martin Henderson – was rounded off with final concerts on Sunday at Islesburgh and the Garrison Theatre.
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