Shetland.org

The Shetland Folk Festival

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Elana James and the Continental Two: Western swing (or ‘The Hot Club of Cowtown’) from Elana James and the Continental Two. As Willie Nelson put it, ‘a beautiful voice, a fantastic musician, with the heart and soul of an angel.’

Each year, around the beginning of May, Shetland’s indefatigable Folk Festival Society stages what’s generally acknowledged to be one of the best events of its kind anywhere.

The first festival was held in 1981 and it featured, among others, Kathryn Tickell, Dick Gaughan and the late Sean McGuire. Down the years, a host of other names has followed them: Kate Rusby, Elvis Costello, Rolf Harris, Awatinas, Hayseed Dixie, Eddie Reader, Ralph McTell, Black Umfolosi, Elana James, Sharon Shannon, Mary Black, Hanggai and the Peatbog Faeries, to name just a very few. As that list suggests, the range of music is eclectic. It’s a genuinely international event that connects Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australasia. All of this is anchored, of course, in a community where music – of all kinds – is at the very heart of Shetland culture and community life.

One of the defining features of the Shetland Folk Festival is its commitment to spreading music throughout Shetland. Concerts don’t just happen in Lerwick, but in several venues scattered around the islands. The festival is fused with the community in every other way too. Visiting performers stay not in hotels but in people’s homes and the running of the event, always to a very high standard, is a triumph of voluntary effort. A festival club provides a social focus and a place where memorable sessions stretch through till dawn. On the last night, all the visiting artistes circulate between three large venues in Lerwick.

The 30th Shetland Folk Festival takes place from 29 April to 2 May 2010 and the festival website is the best place to keep in touch with what’s happening.

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Andy McKee: A teasing smile from stunning fingerstyle guitarist Andy McKee as he slips the riff from Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’ into his set at the 2008 Shetland Folk Festival.

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Hanggai: From the steppes of Mongolia via Beijing, the extraordinary sound of Hanggai was one of the highlights of the 2008 Festival.

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Eddi Reader: An outstanding Scottish singer who found fame with Fairground Attraction, Eddi Reader is known nowadays for her interpretations of the songs of Robert Burns. Here, she’s performing in Lerwick in 2002.