Community / More available online for Wool Week fans
SHETLAND Wool Week will be marked this year with online events after the main festival was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The virtual offering will attempt to give a taste of the popular event, with podcasts, short videos, interviews and tours all planned.
Shetland Wool Week should have been starting this Saturday (26 September).
Head of engagement at the organisers Shetland Amenity Trust Sandy Middleton said: “Locally, Shetland Wool Week is a really important date in the Shetland calendar and is worth over £2 million to the local economy each year.
“Whilst we cannot have a physical event this year, we are committed to maintaining the support and interest of our audience for future years.
“Our online audience has continued to grow throughout lockdown and we are keen to mark what would have been Shetland Wool Week in some way.
“We have been careful not to call it ‘virtual’ Wool Week, as it is by no means a replacement for the real event, but we hope it will reflect the ethos of the festival and give a taste of the week, the people involved, Shetland wool, the skills shared, the landscape and of course the sheep.”
The programme of activity is now available on the Shetland Wool Week website.
The trust will be hosting a ‘virtual makers market’ throughout the week, which will have links to makers’ online shops.
“The vast majority of the online content will be free with a few paid for classes by local tutors,” Middleton said.
“We will be encouraging people, however, to support the future of the event by making a donation online. We are also encouraging as many people as possible to get involved in ‘Fair Isle Friday’ on Friday 2 October.
“It was really popular last year with lots of people, groups and schools getting involved and wearing their Fair Isle and sharing their photos on social media using #SWWFairIsleFriday.”
The trust has also announced that 2021 Wool Week will provisionally take place between 25 September and 3 October.
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