Also in the news / Also in the news 10 March 2026
- Folk festival programme
- Donald Murray book launch
- Drones capture porpoise footage
- People needed for energy workshops
- Arts funding
- Fishing manifesto support
- Nugent on gender recognition reform
MUSIC fans can start getting their diaries out and planning for the Shetland Folk Festival after the concert programme for this year’s event was released.
Early membership holders will get the first chance to buy tickets on Monday 16 March. The festival is taking place between 30 April to 3 May.
More than 35 Shetland-based acts will take to various stages alongside their international contemporaries with concerts in Lerwick, Voe, Aith, Ollaberry, Mid Yell, Gulberwick and Whiteness and Weisdale over the weekend.
Louise Jamieson, the festival’s sponsorship officer, said: “Delivering a festival in the current climate is a considerable challenge, and we simply could not do it without the continued support of our local sponsors and our national funder, Creative Scotland.
“Their backing allows us to maintain the festival’s reputation as a high-quality event.”
Memberships sales will re-open at 5.30pm on 23 March before tickets go on general sale at 6pm the same day.
DONALD Murray’s latest novel The Loch of the Bees is published this week, with a local launch planned at the Shetland Library on 7 May.
The book, from the Shetland based author who hails from Lewis, is set in an imaginary Hebridean island interlinking stories through successive generations.
Murray said: “Among other stories, it encompasses the Napoleonic war which affected many living in Shetland at that time and a story about the effect of a wind tower on a stretch of water, a tale that draws its inspiration from a story that appeared throughout the media in Shetland a few years ago.”
The Loch of the Bees is the latest book in a series of novels by Murray that deals with the effects of emigration on people from island communities.
The launch of his new novel will be linked to various events occurring throughout the north of Scotland over coming weeks, especially the tour of the Metagama; An Atlantic Odyssey, a concert that tells of how islanders adjust to new lives in new environments, such as the United States and Canada, both in positive and negative ways.
DRONES have enabled scientists to capture rare footage of harbour porpoises engaging in mating behaviour off Shetland.
The footage, gathered between 2019 and 2023, provides one of the most detailed records of harbour porpoise mating behaviour ever documented in UK waters.
Sophie Ariadne Francine Smith from UHI Shetland undertook the research as part of her PhD, and became a licensed drone pilot in the process.
She said: “Harbour porpoises are seen from land around Shetland all year round, but one sighting involved intense splashing at the surface. We realised it might be mating behaviour.
“It is incredibly difficult to film porpoises from boats or from land. They don’t spend much time at the water’s surface, don’t follow a predictable line, like an orca, and they are incredibly fast.
“Drone technology means we can film them from above, which gives much more accurate accounts and a clearer interpretation of behaviour.”
RESEARCHERS from the universities in Bath, Cardiff and Strathclyde are still looking for participants for workshops to explore local perceptions, visions and attitudes towards large offshore energy projects.
The project is still short of around 12 participants willing to engage in discussions with the team of researchers in Lerwick either on 27 or 28 March.
For more background see our initial report of the project from last month.
A honorarium of £60 will be paid to each participant. To sign up to one of the workshops, follow the link here.
SHETLAND Arts says ‘group two’ of its commissioning fund is now open for applications, which a deadline of 14 May.
It includes the strands Catalyst (training and development), Boost (retail) and Playwright’s Bursary. More details can be found here.
The Shetland Arts Commissioning Fund is due to continue on an annual basis, creating six opportunities for artists to apply for funding every year.
LOCAL Liberal Democrat election candidate Emma Macdonald has voiced her support for the new manifesto published by the Shetland Fishermen’s Association ahead of the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections.
“The Shetland fishing industry isn’t just another sector of the economy – it’s part of who we are,” she said.
“Generations of Shetlanders have made their living from the sea, and it continues to support communities right across the isles today.”
Read more about the manifesto here.
ELECTION candidate Brian Nugent says one way to celebrate International Women’s Day “properly” would have been for the parties that voted the Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) bill into place to “remove it from the parliamentary record and life in Scotland”.
The Alliance to Liberate Scotland Shetland candidate said the bill “trampled on” women’s rights.
Nugent said: “After two consultations, with the majority of the public against each time, the SNP, with a few notable exceptions, the Lib Dems, Labour and the Greens pushed a flawed bill through the Scottish Parliament.”
Other election candidates publicly confirmed so far for the Shetland constituency are in alphabetical order: Alex Armitage (Greens), John Erskine (Labour) and Hannah Mary Goodlad (SNP).
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