News / Hjaltibonhoga fiddlers set for trip down under
TWENTY members of Shetland fiddle band Hjaltibonhoga are about to embark on the trip of a lifetime having been invited to join a cast of 1,200 performers to play at the Melbourne and Wellington military tattoos later this month.
The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will take a full-size replica Edinburgh Castle down under for a series of sold-out concerts between 12 and 21 February.
Hjaltibonhoga, meaning “Shetland, our spiritual home”, played to great acclaim at the prestigious Edinburgh tattoo in 2014 and 2015.
Band founder Margaret Robertson said she was grateful to everybody who has helped to make the trip to Australia and New Zealand possible.
“A large thank you to all who have helped prepare for this trip,” she said. “Especially as we have new costumes again, and this time we have been sewing them ourselves with the help of friends and family.”
She said everybody in the band was looking forward to representing Shetland and bringing something of home to the many expat islanders who now live in New Zealand and Australia.
Band member Shirley Mills said: “I can’t wait, it’s going to be amazing, especially to be able to play to the Shetlanders and generations of Shetlanders out there.”
The scale of the Australia and New Zealand tattoos is a great deal bigger than that of its Edinburgh counterpart.
“We can safely say we felt overwhelmed the first time we stepped onto the castle esplanade to perform at the Edinburgh Tattoo, to 9,000 folk,” Robertson said. “So we can only but imagine stepping out into a stadium holding 36,000 folk.”
Hjaltibonhoga have been practising relentlessly over the past few months as the music has been flooding in. Some of the new tunes have posed a challenge for the fiddlers.
Member Stuart Grains said: “Personally for me it’s the most challenging music I’ve ever had to learn, but I ken the experience and performances will be mind blowing.”
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