News / Danish duo and local acts for festival
A DANISH husband and wife duo has been added to this year’s Shetland Folk Festival alongside a veritable smorgasbord of local artists.
Roots group Fromseier Hockings are the final visiting act to be confirmed for the annual event, which this year takes place between 28 April and 1 May.
Around 50 local acts will provide support at the festival’s gigs across the isles.
On the bill are the likes of local favourites Haltadans, Vair, Veev, Arthur Nicholson and Kansa.
A one-off, as-yet-unnamed supergroup will also perform at Lerwick’s Clickimin Centre on the Friday at a gig dubbed “Scots On Da Rock”.
The band will feature members from acts such as First Foot Soldiers, Bongshang and Hom Bru and joining them on the bill will be Talisk, Elephant Sessions and Manran.
While the specific concert details haven’t been revealed yet, events will be taking place in Tingwall, Whiteness and Weisdale, Cunningsburgh, Sandwick, Walls, Voe, Sullom, Burravoe and Baltasound.
Lerwick will host gigs at Clickimin, Mareel, Islesburgh Community Centre and the Shetland Hotel.
A standing gig designed for children called Peerie Spang will take also place at Mareel on the Sunday afternoon.
In January the festival announced its line-up of visiting acts, with a native group from the Mongolian border and five acts from North America on the bill.
Early memberships are available online until 29 February, with tickets going out to members from 21 March – two weeks before the public sale.
Meanwhile, the festival has been granted £12,000 from Creative Scotland for this year’s event.
It is one of 129 Scottish projects benefiting from the national arts agency’s £2.77 million pot of “open project funding”.
The grant is an increase of £2,500 from the amount it was given in 2015 by the national body.
“Without Creative Scotland investment and support from the many local sponsors we attract, our festival would have to operate in a completely different manner,” committee member Mhari Pottinger said.
“We are focused on bringing some of the best music in the world to the even the remotest communities, one of the many measures we take to try to make our cultural offering as accessible as possible. Support like this from a national agency gives our volunteer committee a tremendous boost.”
Shetland Charitable Trust also provides cash towards the festival, but its previous £18,000-a-year funding is gradually being phased out through to 2020 as part of a wide-reaching spending cut.
This year the grant is £13,500 and that will be reduced by £4,500 a year for the following three years.
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