About the Scots Fiddle Festival

Welcome!

The Scots Fiddle Festival was launched in 1996 with the aim of promoting and sustaining traditional Scots fiddle music.

Every year, the Festival brings people together from all over the world - both performers and audience members - and continues to inspire thousands of people to enjoy and take part in traditional music each year. It is a Registered Charity and is run by a dedicated committee of volunteers.

In 2018 we moved to a new home at The Pleasance; coming back under one roof which was a desire expressed by many of our supporters. The Pleasance café and bar is freely available to everyone - all day and into the evening - and there is plenty of space for ad-hoc tunes, should you wish.

So, please look forward to a quality weekend, run and organised by dedicated volunteers, a friendly place to meet and enjoy good music; be it listening, playing or performing.

Artistic Director - Graham Rorie

We’re delighted to welcome our new Artisic Director. Orcadian fiddle and mandolin player Graham Rorie is an award-winning folk musician based in Glasgow.

Nominated for ‘Musician of The Year’ at the 2023 Scots Trad Music Awards and a finalist in the 2021 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year, Graham has been making a name for himself as a performer, composer, session musician and producer since he graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Traditional Music Degree.

A founding member of quartet ‘Gnoss’, Graham has enjoyed festival appearances across Europe including Glasgow’s Celtic Connections, Festival Interceltique de Lorient (France) and Tønder Festival (Denmark). The band have also been nominated for four MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards; including ‘Up and Coming Artist of the year 2017’, ’Album of the Year’ for their last two records, ‘Drawn From Deep Water’ (2019) and ‘The Light of The Moon’ (2021) and most recently ‘Folk band of The Year’ (2023).

In his debut solo project, Graham brought together an all-star group of musicians to present a suite of newly-composed music inspired by his fellow Orcadians who travelled to northern Canada to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company during the 18th and 19th centuries. The premier of this new work took place at Celtic Connections 2020, with a sold-out headline show incorporating collaborations with Quebec’s Le Vent Du Nord. "The Orcadians of Hudson Bay” was nominated for ‘Original Work of the Year’ at the Scots Trad Music Awards and was released in album form in May 2021.

Graham’s most recent project is a collaborative effort with pianist Rory Matheson. “We Have Won The Land” is a new suite of music inspired by the Assynt Crofter’s Trust and their community buyout of the North Lochinver Estate in 1993. The subsequent album earned the duo a place in the top ten albums of 2022 at the Scots Trad Music Awards.