‘Special’ day in store as musical cultures set to mix at Mareel
A MELTING pot of musical flavours will be on show at Mareel tomorrow (Saturday) as acts from Shetland and Orkney mix with peers from Argentina.
Rumbo North Isles will see live music run from 3pm to 9pm in the venue’s auditorium, with ticketholders able to come and go in the cabaret set-up.
Argentinian groups Lohdóh and El Guapo will perform alongside North Isles favourites Kris Drever and his band, Catriona Price, Amy Laurenson & Norman Wilmore and Skelpit.
There will also be a family-friendly acoustic concert at Hymhus in Bigton on Sunday featuring some of the visiting acts, which kicks off at 4pm.
El Guapo will be returning to Shetland having played in the isles last year, and vocalist and guitarist Juan Grabina saying the purpose of the event is to bring together people from different musical backgrounds who would not usually get the chance to mix.
“The idea is to expose these artists to audiences that they are not used to playing to, and also [the audiences] to the artists who are they used to seeing,” he told Shetland News.
“It’s going to be a special thing, because there are not many artists from Latin America or Argentina playing here in Shetland.
“We are also going to play songs together between artists from Shetland, and Scotland and Argentina, so it’s going to be an amazing experiment to see what comes out from that.”
The events are being organised by Routes to Roots, an artist-led organisation focused on international collaboration.
Rumbo North Isles builds on the organisation’s first festival, Rumbo Oaxaca, which took place in Mexico earlier in 2026 and brought together musicians from different global backgrounds to collaborate and perform.
There will also be a similar Rumbo event in Orkney on 9 August.
Grabina said “music is one part of the identify of each culture”, adding his view that music is “alive”.
“It’s much more alive when you try new things with it,” he continued, “and having the opportunity for us for example to see the approach to music from the people from Scotland and Shetland.
“We learn a lot, and we hope the people here can also learn from our approach.”
He was unable to pinpoint one particular style when asked to describe El Guapo’s sound, adding that the goal was just to play “the music that we like”.
“We like different things, and you can hear a mixture of that,” Grabina said, including from music that comes not just Argentina but other countries such as Peru and Venezuela.
Also in the mix, however, are flavours of rock music and other styles from this part of the world.
Tickets for the Rumbo North Isles event in Mareel are still available.
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