Reviews / Shetland Folk Fest 2025: Suitably spanged to the point of near exhaustion
IF ANY proof was needed with regard to the enduring popularity of the Shetland Folk Festival, surely the crowds packing into Islesburgh Community Centre on the Wednesday night prior to the event simply to pick up their membership bands and get first ‘dibs’ on this year’s festival merchandise confirmed everything you needed to know.
“Is this the queue,” enquired a slightly disorientated, clearly disbelieving, visitor when faced with the mass of people in what was soon to be transformed into the festival club.
Evidently, she – and clearly many others – had not been expecting this preliminary part of the proceedings to be quite so busy. A positive sign indeed!
On Thursday, the first day of the festival proper, another queueing, clearly energised throng again packed into the club, this time for the opening ceremony and introductory event.
Everyone appeared more than ready for the annual four-day feast of music. If, metaphorically speaking, the main feast was yet to come, this opening event takes the form of an appetiser, with bite-size pieces and tastes of many of the visiting acts served up to further whet the appetites of the expectant audience.
The Shetland Folk Festival, this year celebrating its 43rd incarnation, is the epitome of what a true community event should be. It takes place Shetland wide, adopting a diverse approach as regards the scope of events it incorporates – including concerts for bairns and youths, both in and outwith schools – all aimed at ensuring a truly inclusive impact. It’s a community event, provided for the community by those in the community and run by a committee and volunteers on totally voluntary basis.
Here the term ‘folk’ is generally open to interpretation when it comes to this particular festival’s overall musical approach. For instance, my weekend kicked off on Thursday night in the magisterial – or should that be ministerial – surroundings of Lerwick’s St Columba’s Church, commonly known as ‘da big kirk,’ featuring a concert line-up that was heavily laden with Americana, bluegrass and ragtime influences, all bound up with waves of wonderful harmonies – in particular from Australian visitors the Maes.
Fast forward to Friday night and the relative sedateness and acoustic ambience of the previous evening gave way to the aptly titled ‘Spanging Spree’ in the cavernous confines of Clickimin Centre.
Spanging is a Shetland word which means ‘jumping around,’ so perhaps you get the picture! Yes, seating is provided, and spanging or dancing thankfully isn’t mandatory – especially for those of us with age-related, muscular aches, pains and twinges – but, equally, sitting down is not encouraged during this particular event as was immediately evident from the ample dancing space provided in front of the venue stage.
Opening act Astro Bloc were introduced as ‘one of the most exciting new, young bands on the Scottish music scene’. A fairly accurate description as it transpired, with new being the operative word here, this being only their fourth gig – not of the festival as such, but in fact their fourth gig ever! You’d have been forgiven for finding that hard to believe though given the tightness of their overall performance.
An aural assault from the twin fiddles of Eryn Rae – an ex BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year – and award-winning Irish fiddler Eadaoin Ni Mhaicin spearheaded the charge, accompanied by the guitar of Gillie O’ Flaherty and drums courtesy of Shetlander Paul Jennings.
It was a sound, coupled to the sheer youthful enthusiasm of the band, that soon started to entice people into the area of the dance floor. Initial hesitance soon gave way to a few tentative ‘spangs’ and you began to sense it wouldn’t be all that long before things took off – somewhat akin to a pan on a hotplate where, prior to it eventually coming to the boil, you get a few energised, indicative bubbles appearing at first.
After a deceptively laid back start their set literally exploded into life via some ferocious fiddling and powerhouse musical accompaniment, interspersed with moments of tranquillity and sheer musical beauty. They certainly lived up to their original billing in terms of both excitement and ability.
What followed however was little short of a unique and somewhat eccentric revelation. America’s Elias Alexander is basically a hybrid of a live musician and a DJ – a multi-instrumentalist ably blending guitar, fiddle, bagpipes, small pipes, whistles and vocals with electronic loops and pounding dance beats.
He was introduced as a ‘one man party’ but what followed was more akin to a one-man musical tornado.
Dressed in a somewhat outrageous, brightly coloured floral suit that looked as if it had been hewn from his nan’s parlour curtains, Elias promised to take us on a ‘journey’ with his set. And boy did he deliver in that respect!
Starting off relatively moderately in first gear we hadn’t got too far down the road before he quickly put the pedal to the metal so to speak and went into overdrive, unceremoniously grabbing a set of bagpipes against a backdrop of body-pounding big-beats and challenging the clearly more than willing crowd to stay with him. The response was mighty and instantaneous.
Granted his approach to playing the pipes would be unlikely to win him an award at a more serious piping competition but this guy is an engaging, out and out entertainer, so we weren’t too far into this particular journey before large sections of the crowd, continually coaxed by Elias, were virtually achieving lift-off.
Refusing to be hemmed in by a mere stage Elias ended his set down among the audience, once again wielding his pipes, as the crowd acclaimed surely one of the most astounding and unique artists ever to attend the festival.
Some music is purely built for listening, while some is unapologetically aimed simply at filling dance floors. Mec Lir, who hail from Glasgow and the Isle of Man, are more than able to address both of these requirements.
Brilliantly adept musicians spearheaded by fiddle and accordion, driven along by a veritable power-station of supporting accompaniment, they are making a welcome return to the festival eight years down the line from their first memorable, party-inducing visit back in 2017.
Moderation is clearly not a term these guys are familiar with. Through them rock and folk music collide like two runaway express trains hurtling down the tracks at 100mph with the two main instruments at times screaming at you and each other like the breaking-systems of said trains. It’s a full-on musical, largely jigs and reels, assault to easily induce the required level of spanging. Equally, however, it’s intricate enough to treat the more passive bystander to a hugely entertaining musical experience in its own right.
So, at the culmination of the night many have not only suitably spanged to the point of near exhaustion but, equally, we’ve all been treated to a huge and rich variety of fantastic music with, by now, far more people on the dance floor than remain sitting down. Mission accomplished it would appear!
Davie Gardner
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