News / New acts for folk festival
FOUR new visiting acts have been announced for this year’s Shetland Folk Festival.
They include BBC Radio 2 folk award winner Daoirí Farrell, who will bring his traditional singing and bouzouki playing to the isles for the first time.
The Irishman featured on this year’s Transatlantic Sessions tour and he won best traditional track and the horizon award for best newcomer at the BBC’s folk awards last year.
Trad roots power trio Pete’s Posse from Vermont will also take the trip to Shetland for the festival, which is being held between 3 and 6 May.
As part of the folk festival celebrating the 2018 Year of Young People, the band will be working with members of Young Tradition Vermont on a collaborative project with a number of young Shetland musicians.
Shetland-Devon duo Ross Couper and Tom Oakes will return to the festival having previously played it in 2012.
The guitar and fiddle project will perform as a three-piece over the weekend.
The Friel Sisters, meanwhile, will “use their strong Donegal heritage and sibling bond to create a tightly blended sound that encompasses the soul of Irish music”.
The new acts join a bill which already features visiting artists such as Siobhan Miller, Baltic Crossing and Shooglenifty.
A slew of local acts have also been announced for the festival, from North Ness Boys, Shetland Mandolin Band and Arthur Nicholson to Adam Guest, the Peter Wood Dance Band and Bryan Gear & Violet Tulloch.
Groups including The Revellers, First Foot Soldiers, The U-Turns and David Sandison and the Tennessee Wannabes will also perform late night slots in the festival club at Islesburgh in Lerwick.
Also returning this year will be afternoon sessions on the Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl.
Early memberships for the Shetland Folk Festival are on sale now, while concert tickets will go on sale in due course.
To find out more, visit here.
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