Edinburgh Tradfest enjoys successful return to live events
The tenth edition of Edinburgh Tradfest drew to a successful close on Monday 9 May after a packed 11 day programme of traditional live music, talks, dance, and storytelling at the Traverse Theatre, the Scottish Storytelling Centre and venues across the City.
Over 2,500 tickets were sold to Edinburgh Tradfest’s live music events with a further 3,000 people tuning in to listen to the Edinburgh Tradfest Podcast online.
Overall the Festival featured nearly 100 artists from the world of folk music including well known international and Scottish artists: Frigg, Shooglenifty, Eliza and Martin Carthy, Karine Polwart, Duncan Chisholm, Project Smok, Alice Allen and Patsy Reid, and The Shee. They were joined by some of the best up-and-coming names on the circuit including Beth Malcolm, Eabhal, Madderam, and Malin makes Music and one of the greatest classic banjo players of all time Aaron Jonah Lewis from the highly acclaimed old time trio The Corn Potato String Band.
Audiences packed out the Music Hall at the Assembly Rooms on Opening Night to watch Duncan Chisholm headline the Festival with his band formed from some of Scotland’s top instrumentalists – Jarlath Henderson, Innes Watson, Michael Biggins and Donald Hay - marking a long awaited return to live music events. Duncan was also joined at the end of the night by guest performer and world-class cellist Su-a Lee (Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Mr McFall’s Chamber).
Later in the week, the festival’s 2022 commission Come All Ye stole the show with an outstanding performance played to a near sell-out crowd at the Traverse. This concert, led by Phil Alexander (Moishe’s Bagel) celebrated the impact that many immigrants have made to the cultural life of Scotland and included an incredibly talented group of musicians featuring tambor playing, kalimba, tabla, Brazilian bass, and soaring vocals from Chinese soprano Fong Liu.
Built on collaborations, the Festival once again partnered with the University of Edinburgh to present Rebellious Truth 22 - a talk and panel discussion addressing gender inequality in traditional music with Úna Monaghan who shared some of the research she had done on this in Ireland and the findings in her paper 121 Stories: The impact of gender on participation in Irish traditional music.
Further afield, the Scottish Storytelling Centre enjoyed a popular return to live storytelling and performance with audiences of over 400 attending their rich programme of events. Highlights included their bi-monthly Queer Folks’ Tales event, and a re-telling of Hillsook Weddeen – a beautiful folktale from Shetland, performed by comedian, storyteller and filmmaker Marjolein Robertson. The Festival also saw the return of the Edinburgh Folk Club with award-winning folk scene duo Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman back on stage for a memorable night.
Douglas Robertson and Jane-Ann Purdy, co-producers of Edinburgh Tradfest said:
“It was fantastic to be back and stage 11 days of live music in one of our favourite venues in Edinburgh – The Traverse. We really didn’t know how the return of the festival would be received, but audiences came out in support of live music and we’d like to thank each and every one of them for doing so. There was so much joy in the room, night after night: we were blown away with the response.
We’d also like to thank all the musicians who took part, our funders, partners, and everyone who told us how much they LOVE live music. We look forward to returning with confidence once more in 2023.”
Pablo Lafuente, musician with Project Smok said:
“We had an incredible time playing at Edinburgh Tradfest this year. Really felt like everything was back to the way it should be after everything we’ve been through and to play to a sold out crowd was just amazing. Live music is definitely back with a bang and we’re here for it!”
Daniel Abercrombie, Programme & Events Manager, Scottish Storytelling Centre said: “Edinburgh Tradfest has a special place in our heart, so we were warmed to see so many old and new friends enjoying our storytelling programme this year, which sat alongside the world class music programme in the festival. Our grateful thanks to all who came, and to all who organised. All power to Tradfest!”
The Edinburgh Tradfest Podcast will be available to listen to for the next year, and the festival will return on 28 April 2023.
Watch our highlights in video form: