Arts / Folk festival back with a bang
IT IS official: the isles’ biggest annual music extravaganza – the Shetland Folk Festival – is underway.
Over the next four days and nights musicians from across the world will be joined by local bands and artists to play village halls and larger venues in all four corners of the isles.
After an enforced two year break in 2020 and 2021, followed by the somewhat scaled back event last year, the 41st Shetland Folk Festival is set to produce the ‘real’ festival feel.
The event was opened by Scottish musician and composer Simon Thoumire at Islesburgh Community Centre at Thursday lunchtime after musicians from America, Canada, Zimbabwe and many European countries had arrived on the overnight ferry from Aberdeen.
Among the visiting artists are American legends Foghorn Stringband, Shane Cook & The Woodchippers from Canada, English soul singer Kyla Brox and Zimbabwean dance ensemble Harare.
It is the second time Shane Cook has featured at the festival, and he said he had never stopped thinking about the event since his first appearance in 2015.
“This festival means a lot to me because of the connection between Canadian fiddlers, Scottish and Shetland fiddlers,” he said.
“There are so many Canadians that have come over for decades, and so many tunes from Shetland that have come back to Canada.
“I never felt so at home playing with fiddlers the way I do here.”
Meanwhile Harare brings a very different vibe to the festival. The band whose four members all live in different parts of England add a district African feel to the event, and there is little doubt that they will become one of the highlights over coming days.
Band spokesperson Kudaushe Matimba said they all knew that Shetland Folk Festival is seen as “huge” in the festival world, and it was important for them to be here to showcase their music.
“Our music is participatory, it’s communal, we are interacting with our audiences – that’s how we make music,” he said.
During his opening speech Thoumire recalled his first visit to the festival back in 1991, when they were all ferried on a bus to Yell for a concert and fiddle legend Aly Bain called for a tune on the bus.
Thoumire said he always thought “beer” was his friend but having lived through his first Shetland Folk Festival more than 30 years ago he became to realise that his friend was actually “sleep”.
There may well be little shut-eye over the next four days if the music-packed programme is anything to go by, and if the late night sessions live up to expectations.
Committee member Louise Johnson said everybody in the team was ready for the action and raring to go.
“It is so exciting to have the festival back to full force again with far more late-night stuff again which our members can access here at the festival club and also at the legion,” she said.
The full line-up can be found at the folk festival website here.
Tickets for some concerts are still available from the festival shop at the Islesburgh Community Centre between 11am and 5pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
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