The Shetland Folk Festival committee have completed the line up for the 31st Festival by announcing more than fifty local bands that will play at venues the length and breadth of Shetland, as well as the Festival Club over the four-day event.

Joining the 18 visiting acts previously announced, this year’s local representation includes one of Shetland’s most entertaining and energetic bands, The Revellers who will play alongside Polish band Beltaine at “A Spanging Spree” event at the TA Hall. The Sheila Henderson band has been scheduled in Friday’s Americana Night at the Clickimin alongside The Wilders from Missouri and Louisiana’s L’Angelus. On Saturday, the fired up Fullsceilidh Spelemannslag and Aestaewast, Shetland’s very own African/Afro-Cuban drumming group, will both perform at the Clickimin Concert.

Alongside other Festival favourites such as Hom Bru, Bryan Gear & Violet Tulloch and singer Freda Leask, a number of local acts are making their debut Shetland Folk Festival appearance. These include the North Ness Boys who will perform at the St Columba’s Church as well as singer Jennifer McCormick from Unst who is performing with Jonathan Ritch and Alice Mullay in Boddam. With the Festival’s luring powers, there are also a number of Shetland music students that are travelling home with their University band friends, including Lana Thomson in Two by Sea and Victoria Laurenson with Folk at 45. Biographies and some sound samples of this year’s local acts have been uploaded to the Festival’s website.

In total, the local and visiting acts will perform at 27 different ticketed concerts as well as a number of additional free events such as the playgroup concert, school visits, the youth event as well as private concerts at the Bell’s Brae Additional Support Needs department and the Eric Gray Resource Centre.

As demand for Festival tickets grows year on year, the organisers are staging 6 extra concerts for the 31st Festival to help accommodate the increasing popularity of this annual event.

More information on all concerts can be found in this year’s official programme that the Shetland Times Ltd has prepared in partnership with the Shetland Folk Festival. In addition to biographies of all visiting artistes, a selection of local acts and the event programme day by day, the pocket sized booklet contains some handpicked photos of last year’s Festival that are guaranteed to raise a smile. The programme, which costs £3, can be ordered in advance through the Festival’s ticket booking form and will be available for sale during the 4-day event.

The ticket booking form and membership receipts will be posted out to Advance members this weekend and will be distributed through the Shetland Times on the 1st April when ticket booking becomes available for all. As a number of events may have sold out to advance members, people are advised to check the Festival website for updates on concert availability prior to returning any booking form.

www.shetlandfolkfestival.com

Source: Shetland Folk Festival Society