Orkney Folk Festival
26 - 29 May 2005
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The sweet strains of fiddles, accordions, voices and guitars mark the start of the summer as the Orkney Folk Festival takes place. Year after year the festival draws musicians and visitors from all over the world. It's an enriching weekend with a vast array of events featuring a wide range of musicians, from long-established stars to young aspiring talent. |
In the past the Orkney Folk Festival has held workshops aimed at local school children in fiddle playing and other instruments. Over recent years, however, the playing of traditional music has become more and more popular. There are many ways to get involved including: playing in some of the many groups involving young Orcadian players or the Orkney Traditional Music Project through the education authority’s instrumental tutors.
| This has led to the Orkney Folk Festival’s workshops becoming superfluous. For this reason attention and resources at the 2005 festival was focussed on singing and more especially song-writing. Last year there were extremely successful song-writing workshops in Evie, Sanday and St Andrews. |
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This year they are giving two more schools the chance to take part in the scheme and are already looking forward to hearing the results!
As usual there was a full programme of school visits. Many of the visiting artists travelled to one or more of the primary schools to demonstrate their talents to youngsters. By doing this, the scope of the festival reaches beyond children who already play an instrument or those whose parents are interested in music.
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Visiting musicians included:
- Benche
- Colin Deward Band
- Fine Friday
- Peatbog Faeries
- Phil Cunningham and Duncan Chisholm
- Tarneybackle
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And just some of the local acts were:
- Barbara and Sarah Jane Grieve
- The Linties
- Orkney Fiddle and Accordian Club
- Orkney Traditional Music Project
- Saltfishforty
- The Wrigley Sisters
| There are loads more performances so have a look at the Orkney Folk Festival website for full details of all the events and to keep up to date about next year's festival. |
Supported by the National Lottery through the Scottish Arts Council |