MNS FESTIVALS! supplement (May21-23)

MUSIC FESTIVALS - MUSIC FESTIVALS - MUSIC FESTIVALS - MUSIC FESTIVALS
‘Virtually’ Orkney Folk Festival includes World premiere amongst exclusive
online performances from over 20 artists over 38th festival weekend
Online :: 27-30 May :: www.orkneyfolkfestival.com
An international bill of
leading folk artists from
Scotland, England,
Norway, Denmark and
Canada will feature as
part of this year’s online
Orkney Folk Festival -
alongside a number of
newly commissioned
performances from
homegrown Orcadians.
Dubbed the Virtually Orkney Folk Festival for 2021,
the award-winning festival’s organisers are recreating
as much of the treasured live event as possible within
a brand new digital programme, with exclusive
content. This follows the success of the festival’s Big
Lockdown Special in 2020, where unearthed archive
footage was screened to mark the festival weekend,
amassing over 31,000 views just two months into the
UK’s lockdown.
This year’s four day event, streaming over the
festival’s regular long weekend of May 27-30,
promises numerous new concert performances and
workshops, alongside iconic programme fixtures -
including Saturday night favourite, The Stomp, and
the annual Fiddlers’ Rally with massed performances
of traditional tunes; a cornerstone of the festival since
its very first outing in 1983.
Renowned for profiling local Orkney talent alongside
leading international artists for almost four decades,
this year’s festival offering is no exception - featuring
the online world premiere of a new suite of music
composed by Orcadian fiddle and mandolin player,
Graham Rorie.
The Orcadians of Hudson Bay - inspired by Graham’s
fellow islanders who travelled to The Hudson’s Bay
Company in Northern Canada to make their living in
the fur industry during the 18th and 19th centuries -
features an all all-star band, of James Lindsay (double
bass), Kristan Harvey (fiddle), Padruig Morrison
(accordion), Rory Matheson (piano) and Signy
Jakobsdottir (drums and percussion). The album
accompanying the project will also be released during
the festival weekend, on Friday 28 May.
A bumper line-up of Orcadian artists will take centre
stage with brand new performances - including
festival favourites The Chair, following the hotlyanticipated
release of their third album, Orkney
Monster, in December; home-grown, world touring
quartet Fara; acclaimed local duo Saltfishforty - aka
Douglas Montgomery and Brian Cromarty; and awardwinning
young group Gnoss, hot on the heels of their
BUY YOUR TICKETS @ www.orkneyfolkfestival.com/tickets/
Skerryvore play 'Virtually' Orkney Folk Festival
www.facebook.com/skerryvore
:: photo by Sean Purser
new album release, The Light of the Moon.
They will be joined by a number of high-profile artists
from throughout Scotland’s folk scene - also all
presenting brand new and exclusive sets as part of
the Virtually Orkney Folk Festival programme -
including Blazin’ Fiddles, Skerryvore, Talisk and
Siobhan Miller.
Contributing festival sets from from slightly further
afield, international artists on the digital event’s lineup
include Canadian roots duo Madison Violet, Danish
folk virtuosos, the Blum and Haugaard Band, and livewire
Norwegian/Swedish quartet SVER. Yorkshire
songstress Edwina Hayes is making a welcome return
to the Orkney Folk Festival bill, whilst exciting young
Scottish group Tannara and celebrated Edinburghbased
singer-songwriter Dean Owens both mark their
debuts.
As has long been the case for the Orkney Folk
Festival, musicians and singers from the islands’ rich
local music community form the backbone of the
festival programme, welcoming visiting musicians and
audiences into the fold in their droves. Online
audiences can also look forward to newly filmed sets
from artists including fiddle and piano duo Eric
Linklater and Jennifer Austin, local singers Sarah Jane
Gibbon and Emma Grieve, popular youth trio Lyra,
the much loved Shetland/Orkney song pairing of Brian
Cromarty and Jenny Keldie, renowned singer Jo
Philby, East Mainland family group The Brewers, and
local stalwarts Hullion - who are celebrating their 30th
year performing together in 2021 - amongst further
acts still to be announced.
Filming for the Virtually Orkney Folk Festival is
already underway in the county, on location in a
number of venues in Orkney - including popular
Stromness hostelry, and the scene of countless
Orkney Folk Festival sessions over the years, The
Ferry Inn. Shooting is also due to get underway in
production facilities on the Scottish mainland very
soon - all in adherence to, and under continuous
review with, the prevailing covid-19 health and safety
workplace guidance.
Recording such an unprecedented volume of brand
new festival footage - particularly of Orcadian artists -
has been made possible through grant funding
awarded from EventScotland’s Event Recovery Fund,
created in response to the covid-19 pandemic,
alongside the festival’s annual support from Orkney
Islands Council and commercial sponsorship.
All artists appearing at the Virtually Orkney Folk
Festival were due to appear live in 2020, prior to the
event’s cancellation amidst the UK’s first national
lockdown. Having initially been rebooked for 2021, in
the hope that it would be a live event, they will now
appear both as part of this year’s virtual event and
live when the festival returns to an in-person event in
2022.
With further artists and the festival’s full programme
to be announced in the coming weeks, all-inclusive
weekend streaming tickets are now on sale, at just
£40 per household.
Festival Director Bob Gibbon said: “I can't explain
what it means to be able to bring this virtual line up
to you all this year. Being prevented from putting on
a live festival again yet again was painful, but we
have successfully managed to turn it around to a
tremendously positive outcome.
“I know online isn't quite the same, but music is
engaging no matter how it is done - that’s the beauty.
There are musicians out there literally champing at
the bit to be playing again, and this is what we are
endeavouring to do; to connect the performer to the
listener and hopefully spread some positivity in these
desperate times. Not only will there be online
concerts, there will also be the chance for folk to join
in with a Zoom-style Fiddlers’ Rally and an online Folk
Festival Choir - not to mention workshops as well.
Basically, all is not lost; life goes on, music lives on,
Orkney Folk Festival lives on!”
Orcadian musician Graham Rorie said: “The
Orkney Folk Festival has been a huge part of my
music career so far and it’s always a real honour to
take part in such a world-class event. To have the
online premiere of 'The Orcadians of Hudson Bay’ on
the festival line up is very special, especially with so
much of the story based around the port of
Stromness where the Hudson’s Bay Company's ships
set sail for Canada. Whist it’s a shame that the show
can’t be taking place live in Stromness itself, to be
playing the music to an Orkney Folk Festival audience
will still be a real treat!”
Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s Director of
Events, said: “We are delighted to be supporting
Virtually Orkney Folk Festival through a tumultuous
time for events and the wider industry. It is inspiring
to see festivals like this find new ways to put on an
event for the people of Scotland and further afield.”
www.orkneyfolkfestival.com
www.twitter.com/OrkneyFolkFest
www.facebook.com/orkneyfolkfestival
email your festival news to alastair.musicnewsscotland@gmail.com