One more sleep to Tradfest!!
Edinburgh Tradfest gets underway tomorrow and we’re very excited!
Naturally we are really looking forward to our opening concert with Lankum. No one gig sums up the journey to this point that we have been on over the past few years than this band, who had their first Edinburgh appearance in our front room just over three years ago. Today, they are feted wherever they go as the new voice of Irish trad, and rightly so. We owe them a great debt of thanks for interrupting their recording schedule to open our very first Edinburgh Tradfest.
Also highly anticipated this opening weekend is our first specially created show, What A Voice. This brings together three of Scotland's most engaging and accomplished singers and tradition bearers of Scots and Gaelic song: Kathleen MacInnes, Fiona Hunterand Kaela Rowan. They are celebrating the wonderful women vocalists who influenced them. To get a flavour of those influences check out our What A Voice Spotify Playlist.
On Sunday we're hosting Baltic Crossing, a band of multi-national instrumentalists from Denmark, Finland and England, and Monday sees the Edinburgh-debut of one of the stand out hits of Celtic Connections – May Erlewine. None other than Cerys Matthews of BBC 6Music singled out the Michigan singer as one of her highlights of the Glasgow festival.
Don't forget Gnoss on Tuesday at the Scottish Storytelling Centre who're launching their hotly anticipated new album at Tradfest, and English folk legend Dave Burland who's appearing at the Edinburgh Folk Club on Wednesday.
Also getting underway this weekend is the Folk Film Gathering at the Filmhouse, and some great seasonal family and storytelling events at the Scottish Storytelling Centre.