News
11 March
The 2024 Scots Fiddle Festival will take place from 15-17 November. Get the dates in your diary now!
07 December
We’re delighted to welcome our new Artistic Director.
Graham Rorie will be a well-kent face to many - and you can read more about him here. Welcome aboard, Graham - it’s braw to be working with you again!
18 November 2023
And that’s a wrap! The 2023 Scots Fiddle Festival has now come to an end. :-(
Huge thanks to all the artists, stallholders, volunteers, sound and lighting technicians, bar staff, stewards and everyone else who makes this annual event such a success…and last but not least...our amazing audience.
See you all next year for #ScotsFiddleFestival2024…get Friday 15 - Sunday 17 November 2024 in your diaries now!
14 November 2023
THREE SLEEPS TO GO!!! Excitement is building here at SFF HQ…we cannot WAIT to see everyone this weekend. The weekend kicks off on Friday with our amazing opening concert at 7.30pm - find out more here: Evening Concerts — Scots Fiddle Festival 2023.
See you there!
1 November 2023
All go behind the scenes, only two and half weeks to go before Vri and Sara Jayne with her all star cast take the stage. Tickets are selling steadily for all events, some are getting close to selling out, so don’t delay and get your tickets now.
9 October 2023
Pleasance Theatre gets an upgrade ! - seating is currently being re upholstered plus new carpets laid, and a general refurbishment works carried out, completing for the end of October. The Scots Fiddle Festival will be the first event following this refurbishment.
26 September 2023
Sarah-Jane Summers announces band members for her Raising The Wind concert on the Friday night at Scots Fiddle Festival, reads a bit like a who’s who of amazing players
Band Members are :- Sarah Jane Summers - fiddle; Juhani Silvola - acoustic and electric guitar; Seonaid Aitken - fiddle; Megan Henderson - fiddle; Katrina Lee - viola; Su-a-Lee - cello; Rikard Toften Holst - double bass.
One not to miss !
17 September 2023
The price you see, is the price you pay - in total !
We have tweaked our ticket pricing policy this year, so that all our published prices are now fully inclusive of all costs - so no added transaction charges, no extra costs, and no extra confusion !
17 September 2023
And we’re live! Tickets for this year’s Scots Fiddle Festival are now on sale.
14 September 2023
We’re delighted to announce that our 2023 Programme is now LIVE! Click here for full details.
Tickets go on sale on Sunday 17 September.
05 September 2023
We’re now assessing all of the amazing applications we received for this year’s Youth Engagement Project. We can’t wait for you to hear them at our evening concert on Saturday 18 November!
20 August 2023
Don’t miss out!
We’re putting the final touches to this year’s Scots Fiddle Festival programme and will share it with you very soon. Tickets will go on sale on Sunday 17th September.
13 January 2023
25+2 Collection now available on Bandcamp, buy or download CD , MP3 or FLAC / WAV, buy the book, and the book plus CD pack.
https://thescotsfiddlefestivalband.bandcamp.com/album/the-25-2-collection-2
4 January 2023
Our 25+2 CD will be available on Bandcamp in next couple of weeks, with download and physical CD delivery options. The 25+2 Collection Book will also be available on Bandcamp for delivery.
4 January 2023
First Review of our 25+2 Collection CD and Book - review by Alex Monaghan
SCOTS FIDDLE FESTIVAL BAND - The 25+2 Collection
Own Label SFF2201CD www.scotsfiddlefestival.com
11 tracks, 49 minutes
Marking the 25th year of the Scots Fiddle Festival, delayed by 2 years because of You Know What, this collection of 27 tunes is presented by a band of Scotland/s finest: Jenna Reid, Graham Mackenzie and Adam Sutherland on fiddles, Anna Massie on guitar, Brian McAlpine on keys, and double bass from James Lindsay. The sound is great, the performances are catchy as winter 'flu, and the tunes are all recent compositions by people who have appeared at the festival at least once. Scottish music through and through, from Shetland to the Borders, with a brief detour to include the punchyPatti Fahey's Slideby the prodigious Chicago Irish fiddler Liz Carroll whose 2019 apearance in Edinburgh was a real highlight, the pieces are thoughtfully arranged into eleven tracks. The overall character of this collection is definitely contemporary Scots fiddle, with a wide range of material but mostly played in a style somewhere between Edinburgh and the West Coast to my ears - not so much North East or Northern Isles delivery, although there are plenty of tunes included from those areas.
Listening through the whole album is a rare pleasure, but you may also wish to concentrate on learning a particular tune: there is a companion book available (helpfully ring-bound) with all the melodies and suggested chords, as well as notes on the background or inspiration for each piece. This 25th anniversary initiative will be added to by providing the pieces used for the annual Youth Engagement Project on the SFF website, building up a body of tunes. Judging by the current crop, they'll all be first class: from Bruce MacGregor's The Ox which always reminds me of The Animals' Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, to the final Giant Ship by Mike Vass, every composition here is a cracker. Reels and jigs, waltzes and airs, hornpipes and strathspeys, man, it's all good. Picking favourites is guaranteed to upset some people - but what the hell, it's Christmas! Chris Stout's Hamnataing is a tune I've always loved, and Ross Couper's Melbourne is another great find from the frozen north. On the gentler side, Evie's Waltz by Amy Geddes is a real beauty, and Lauren MacColl's Still, Skye is brim-full of Hebridean mysticism, well hidden on the album, although quite unrelated to illicit whisky. There's a 7/8 of course, followed by the 6/4 of Patsy Reid's lovely Springa Like Marit, and stacks of reels where the contributions by Sally Simpson, Marie Fielding and Jonny Hardie stood out for me. A wonderful milestone for the Scots Fiddle Festival in 2022, and a great resource for future fiddlers, The 25+2 Collection should be well received worldwide.
1st January 2023
A Good New Year to one and all from everyone at Scots Fiddle Festival!
15 Nov 2022
Workshop 2 - Kevin Henderson now sold out
11th November 2022
New Short Saver ticket added, with the sell out (less one - see below) of the Saturday Concert we have added a new ticket giving the benefits of the Festival Saver but excluding Saturday night Concert, at a price of £85 a £33 saving on the normal price
Festival Saver now sold out
9th November 2022
Please remember venue (run by EUSA)- bar - cafe etc., is cashless transactions only.
Saturday evening concert, Workshops 4, 7 and 16 are now SOLD OUT
5th November 2022
The Legacy Project 25+2 Collection
25+2 COLLECTION TUNE BOOK AND CD WILL BE LAUNCHED AT FESTIVAL ON SATURDAY 19TH NOVEMBER
SALES NOW ACTIVE
Christmas (present time) is coming !!
We are delighted to announce the launch and release of our 25+2 Collection Tune Book, and CD.
These feature 27 tunes, each one composed by a different and current fiddle playing composer, including comments on their tune by each composer (many reflecting the Covid times during which they were composed) , all arranged into sets for playing, many published for the first time, and recorded on CD by The Scots Fiddle Festival Band. Being the first two phases of our Legacy Project.
Composers - Liz Carroll, Alasdair Fraser, Charlie McKerron, Bruce McGregor, Eilidh Steel, Sally Simpson, Amy Geddes, Eilidh Shaw, Jenna Reid, Gordon Gunn, Duncan Chisholm+Hamish Napier, Patsy Reid, Jonny Hardie, Kevin Henderson, Paul Anderson, Sarah-Jane Summers, Marie Fielding, Ross Couper, Anna Massie, Emma Tomlinson, Lauren MacColl, Chris Stout, Catriona MacDonald, Douglas Montgomery, Gavin Marwick, Mike Vass, Laura Wilkie
Patti Fahey’s Slide - Patti is an old friend of mine, married to Marty Fahey who is an even older musician friend of mine. Many a time Patti and I chatted during the pandemic, and it occurred to me to finally write a tune for her. I think the tune is extremely happy, symbolic of the bolstering up Patti and I did for each other while so much of what was happening in the world was sad. Finally, since Patti sounds like Paddy, and Paddy Fahey was a legend tune writer, who never named his tunes - hence they are all titled “Paddy Fahey’s” - I couldn’t resist adding another Fahey’s albeit Patti, to the Irish music lexicon. Liz Carroll
Scots Fiddle Festival Band members - , Jenna Reid - fiddle, Graham MacKenzie - fiddle, Anna Massie - Guitar, Brian McAlpine - Keyboard, James Lindsay - Bass.
Produced by Adam Sutherland, who also contributed on fiddle on some tracks.
Arrangements for the sets as played, will be published around Christmas 2022, thus completing the “plug and play” Performance Pack, providing a school or community group or others with the components required to give a performance of the sets.
Now on sale - Is being formally launched at The Festival on 19th November 2022.
26 October 2022
3pm Sunday Recital, Rona Wilkie & Friends (Sally Simpson, Morag Brown, Liam Lynch, and Lori Watson)
An exciting combination of many talents, appearing as a group for the first time. Features Rona Wilkie (Fiddle and Gaelic Song), Sally Simpson (fiddle/viola), Morag Brown (fiddle), Liam Lynch (violinist with RSNO), and Lori Watson (fiddle and Scots song)
Cabaret Bar is now Cashless
Please note the EUSA Cabaret Bar / Cafe is cashless for all transactions. This was adopted during Covid times by the Edinburgh University Students Association (EUSA) and has now been continued. The good news, is that the Student bar prices are still much cheaper than other establishments, and they maintain that pricing for our Festival goers :)
U18 TICKETS
We have been receiving requests for more opportunities for U18s to attend workshops other than the normal dedicated U18 ones.
To respond to this demand we have now created additional (but limited) slots, in various workshops, throughout the weekend, one per time band. These are within adult workshops, and young people participating in these, must be of a playing standard appropriate to the Workshop. The Workshops cover various styles and abilities, so should be something for everyone.
The Workshops are
Workshop - 6 - Ellie McLaren - 12 noon Saturday
Workshop - 8 - Gordon Gunn - 2pm - Saturday
Workshop - 10 - Louise Hunter - 4pm Saturday
Workshop - 17 - Mauris Otves - 12 noon Sunday
Workshop - 19 - Alice Allen - 2pm Sunday
Workshop - 22 - Mairi Campbell - 4pm Sunday
Should an U18 have already bought a full price ticket for these workshops, please e mail info@scotsfiddlefestival.com and will will reimburse the difference in price.
The existing, and 100%, Youth / U18 workshops are, Workshop - 1 Heisk - 10am Saturday and Workshop - 15 Gica Loening - 10 am Sunday.
We are delighted to see this demand and will be great to see more young people participating in and enjoying the Festival - they are the Future - and we hope we can build on this in future Festivals.
Covid Capacity
The University has carried out additional ventilation and other works to ensure the Pleasance venues meet with the recommended guidelines in relation to Covid, and our use of these venues is within the Covid design capacities, recommended.
General
Five weeks to go, and sales are gradually picking up momentum again - as they normally do, as we approach the Festival dates. So please get in soon and ensure you get into the workshops, and other events, you wish.
This year we have a couple of interesting early morning concerts on the Saturday and Sunday mornings at 10.00am, both in the Quaker Studio, so a good space, easily accessed and with entrance door from outside. For those who need it we can get vehicle close to entrance door (strictly by arrangement only). Thanks to Live Music Now, for helping us with these concerts - these are non ticketed, free to attend, but donations are welcomed.
Saturday Concert is a Dementia friendly concert, with Ellie McLaren and Ciar Milne, on fiddle and small pipes, both top class artists, their first gig was at Celtic Connections !!
Sunday Concert is a Family Friendly concert, for babes in arms upwards (each child or young family must bring at least one adult with them). Sitting still is not an option, laughing and smiling is encouraged, and with Roo Geddes and Neil Sutcliffe providing the music, will be a fun family event. For harassed parents there is the Hub with coffee and bar, for post concert wind down !
These concerts are open to all, just turn up and enjoy the music - but donations are welcomed.
Looking forward to welcoming everyone to the Festival, - don’t miss it.