Arts / Watch: Folk festival is back with a bang
A WILD weekend of spanging sprees and spontaneous sessions kicked off officially today (Thursday) with the launch of the 43rd Shetland Folk Festival.
The annual celebration of visiting and local musical talent brings people from far and wide to enjoy a four-day feast of live performances.
Islesburgh is the spiritual home of the folk festival, hosting its world-famous club every year, and as ever its Room 16 was the venue for today’s launch event.
The honour of opening the event went to Finnish musician Esko Järvelä, of the bluegrass septet Frigg, who has been a regular visitor to the festival in recent years.
Folk enthusiasts packed the room to get a first glimpse of the acts they will be enjoying across the weekend.
Performing at the launch event were acts including Norwegian fiddler Julie Alapnes, who is set to be seen at the Tingwall Hall tonight before playing gigs in the Lerwick Legion tomorrow afternoon and Mareel on Friday night.
A total of 15 visiting acts have made long journey to Shetland, making the pilgrimage from everywhere from Canada to California, and Australia to Estonia, for one of the biggest weekends in the folk music calendar.
Shetland Folk Festival said this year’s visiting acts span a wide range of genres, including country, gypsy jazz, ragtime, Americana, rock, and of course traditional folk.
They will be joined by the usual array of homegrown groups, singers and musicians.
Joining the line-up for the 2025 festival are local folk, fiddle and Americana acts such as Laeverick, Kansa, Haltadans, Treemandos and Fullsceilidh Spelemannslag, among many others.
Many of the visiting acts arrived in Shetland off the boat on Thursday morning after some of the festival committee members travelled to Aberdeen to meet the musicians.
Most concerts are already sold out, and any remaining tickets are available to buy from the festival club at Islesburgh during its shop opening hours (Thursday, Friday and Saturday 11am to 5pm).
People can find out what acts are scheduled to play and when here.
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its readers to consider paying for membership to get additional perks:
- Removal of third-party 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.
