News / Music promoters in Norwegian exchange
A GROUP of budding Shetland music promoters will sail to Norway next month to host live performances in a “musical exchange” with youngsters in the country.
Shetland Young Promoters Group (SYPG), who host the isles’ popular annual battle of the bands event, are travelling to Sund Kommune via the port of Glesvaer on traditional sail boat the Swan on 3 August.
Nine people from SYPG will head to Norway to host a couple of gigs featuring music from its own members.
A group of young people from Norway are set to return the favour by hosting performances in Shetland in the future.
The trip has received sponsorship from Grieg Seafood, while the group have fundraised themselves by busking and bag packing, while beach cleans are also in the pipeline.
Sund cultural minister Lialia Klemetsaune and mayor Kari-Anne Landro initially contacted the SYPG with the vision of strengthening the existing links between the region and Shetland.
Scalloway is twinned with Sund Kommune, while the area has connections with the Shetland Bus World War II resistance movement.
Eamonn Watt, who recently graduated from the UHI’s BA Applied Music course, is one of the SYPG members who will be heading to Norway.
“We’re hoping to put on a great show for our new audience in Norway and develop the relationship between Norway and Shetland even further,” He said.
“We’ve all been practising very hard and we’re hoping that the songs, and our musical skills, will impress our new audience.”
The expedition is inspired by a similar visit the group made to Aberdeen in 2012.
“The purpose of this trip is a musical exchange between the two places,” Watt added.
“We’ll be visiting a rock café and an acoustic café to put on a musical show to a brand new audience and after all is done in Norway, a group of young Norwegians will be coming over to Shetland to put on a performance for us.”
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