Arts / ‘What a weekend’: reflections on Rising North
The festival is set to expand to two nights at the Clickimin in 2025
THE FIRST Rising North festival has been hailed a big success as people turned out in huge numbers to enjoy three days of live music over the weekend.
Festival committee chairperson Anthony Peart said the event “couldn’t have gone any better”, with no major hiccups.
Plans are well underway for next year, with the event set to expand to two nights at the Clickimin instead of just one.
The dates for the diary are 15, 16 and 17 August 2025.
The festival was organised by a committee of people involved in the local music scene, who were supported over the weekend by an army of volunteers.
On Friday nearly 20 local bands performed across five venues in Lerwick, with some of the pubs packed to the rafters.
The following day 15 acts then played at the Clickimin across the bowls and main halls, from afternoon to night.
It did not stop there either, with more live music gracing the Mareel cafe/bar on Sunday afternoon.
With so many moving parts it certainly appeared there could have been a risk things may go wrong – but by all accounts the organisation went smoothly.
Peart said the only negative feedback from the event revolved around the bar at the Clickimin on the Saturday night being “overwhelmed” with customers, but that is one of the things which will be discussed post-festival.
“Sometimes you come away from these things and say I don’t know if I’d do that again…but I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” he said as he reflected on how things went.
With most of the committee performing as well as organising, the Sunday gave a chance for reflection – with those involved said to be an “emotional wreck” by the end of it all.
“There’s seven guys in the committee and everyone one of them at some point had tears in their eyes,” Peart said. “It was amazing.”
The capacity of the Clickimin Leisure Complex was 1,200 and the main batch of tickets sold out in just a matter of minutes earlier this year.
On the Saturday the leisure centre underwent a transformation into a festival, with folk walking between stages during the day, a merchandise stall upstairs and food vans in the car park – all while the usual swimming and gym activities went on elsewhere in the building.
There were event dance classes and a bairns’ disco put on by Bambeenies.
Shetland Recreational Trust chief executive Robert Geddes said feedback from Clickimin staff was that it was “all in all a positive event”.
“As per all events we’ll sit down with our staff and the event organisers to reflect and to see where we can improve for future years should it go ahead again but don’t think there’s any major changes needed from our end, just some tweaks,” he added.
Festival committee member and sound engineer David Bisset had the responsibility of helming the mixing desk in the main hall in the Clickimin.
With gear shipped up from down south for the big stage, he said it was the largest equipment he has worked with “by a long way”.
“It was so much easier to mix on than just doing a normal hall gig – there you are fighting feedback and noise, but having it all set up like that was just so good,” Bisset said.
He conceded it was a long day, having gone in early on Saturday morning to make sure everything was ready.
But despite the numerous bands on the bill everything seemed to go on time. “Every changeover was bang on the minute,” Bisset added.
The sound man also had an opportunity himself to briefly leave the mixing desk and perform on stage – joining First Foot Soldiers on their crowd-pleasing rendition of Oasis’ Don’t Look Back in Anger.
Keith Morrison was in charge of the lighting while one of the two visiting tech support staff controlled the performers’ monitor mixes from the side of the stage – what the musicians hear on stage while they are playing.
In bowls hall local duo Stevie Hook and Amanda Pearson were in charge of the sound.
Meanwhile one musician particularly busy on the Friday night was Callum Anderson, who played with his folk metal act Trowsholm in the Thule before heading to the Lounge to perform with rock group Forgotten Sons.
He said he was taken by surprise by how packed the pubs were.
“Trowsholm were playing early at 8pm and didn’t expect a big turnout – the Thule was packed for our set, they actually stopped letting folk in,” the guitarist and vocalist added.
“Playing later in the Lounge with Forgotten Sons it was the same, sweat was dripping off the walls with how crammed the place was. There was great energy.
“I am happy that audiences loved it and it was a success for all musicians and organisers involved.
“It was great to see so many folk out supporting the first Rising North and all the great local bands.”
Regarding next year, Peart said one visiting act has already been booked as the festival expands from purely local music, with more details to be announced in due course.
The plan is to have the festival in the Clickimin on both the Friday and Saturday night in 2025.
“We’re not fully decided on how we’re going to approach the whole festival – on the Friday we had all the bands in the pubs, and we still want to make sure that we have that feel again,” Peart added.
“We do definitely want the pubs to be involved every year.”
The committee’s thoughts have also even moved towards 2026 – with the team interested in seeing if an outdoor event could work.
But for now, it is a chance to put the feet up and reflect on what has been a big success.
“Over the last two weeks, if you left your phone for an hour there was about 100 messages on WhatsApp,” Peart said.
“But it’s been excellent, and all the boys are absolutely chuffed to bits.”
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its many readers to consider paying for membership to get additional features and services: -
- Remove non-local ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
