Folk Festival
From 6th to the 9th June, Arran will be rejoicing in the annual Folk Festival, which this year looks brighter than ever.
Jon Hollingworth, who organises it, sends us the following notes on the highlights.
Thursday, 6th June, Brodick Hall, 7.30 pm. Opening concert at Brodick Hall
The three talented acts kick off with Jim Hunter and Graham Flett, who played at our Friday night concert last year and easily won the crowd over with their catchy tunes, masterful musicianship and warm personalities. We are excited to welcome them back again and delighted that Jim has agreed to compere our evening concerts during the rest of the festival. The lads will also be sitting in on our afternoon sessions, helping to keep the music flowing throughout the weekend.
Jim and Graham are followed by Alana MacInnes (pipes & whistles) and Caitlin McNeill (guitar/vocal). Born on South Uist and Colonsay respectively, the girls grew up in the Celtic tradition and first met as a pair after being asked to perform in Brittany by Ceolas Uibhist. Despite their youth, they have an array of performances under their belts and a growing catalogue of their own compositions.
To complete a fabulous line-up, we have the Angus Nicolson Trio, one of the freshest and most energetic acts on thefolk scene today. Their music is very Highland-orientated, with Andrew MacPherson on percussion /whistle and Murdo Cameron on guitar/accordion
giving the tunes a contemporary and exciting twist. And with Angus’s skill on Highland pipes, Border pipes, and whistles, they are guaranteed to get your toes tapping!
Friday, 7th June, afternoon and evening
12 mid-day to 5.00 pm, FREE Open session, Douglas Hotel. Bring an instrument or just yourself. Five hours of very good fun.
Concert in Brodick Hall, 7.30 pm
Again, this features three groups. The first is the Linzi Murphy Trio, formed in September last year and already scoring great acclaim. Linzi herself was twice a semi-finalist in BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician of the Year and has a lifelong passion for Scottish
traditional song. Lorne MacDougal, three times a finalist in the same competition is a piper of international renown, and Suzanne Houston is a pianist and singer of Gaelic song who graduated with 1st Class Honours from the Scottish Conservatoire. These three produce a .
rich blend of Scottish and Irish music that is spellbinding.
Ronnie Costley and Alasdair Kennedy follow. Ronnie’s most recent album, “Souvenirs
and Scotch Miast” tells tales from the streets of his Glasgow childhood, trips
‘doon the watter’ and wild weekends on Arran, but combines them with the world of today,
A lifelong visitor to Arran, Ronnie is looking forward to playing these songs here, and with their catchy melodies and sing-along choruses, they should be a big success. Alasdair
Kennedy is a multi-instrumentalist, moving happily between guitar, mandolin,
fiddle and banjo. As a member of Limited Edition and now The Moonshiners, he is well known to Arran audiences..
Then comes Cera Impala and The New Prohibition. Hold onto your hats – Cera is a ‘wild banjo-wielding mama from Flagstaff, Arizona.’ She now lives in Edinburgh, and we wonder how that douce city can contain her. A multi-instrumentalist singer-singwriter, her songs tell of ‘life wandering the path less travelled’ in a passionate, intimate performance that is hard to forget. Her performance is enhanced by the fiery violinist Dirk Ronneburg, with whom she plays in their band, The New Prohibition.
Saturday 8th June afternoon and evening
12- 5.00 pm, FREE Open Session at the Ormidale Hotel, Brodick.
Again, bring an instrument or your voice and join in, or just enjoy it over a pint.
Brodick Hall Concert, 7.30
Alan Frew and Mark Rafferty kick off in this final concert. Alan is a Troon-based performer and promoter, working with Mark, whom he met in the Glasgow band, The Kytes. Their most recent collaboration began when Mark asked Alan to take part in the Gerry Rafferty
Remembered concert in memory of his late uncle. Since then, the pair have been writing and recording an album to be released this summer.
The Ross Ainslie Trio are understandably famous, and these highly accomplished musicians are in hot demand. Ross, on whistles and pipes, has played all over the world with a host of bands and artists. He has also received nominations for Best Instrumentalist and Best Live Act at the Scots Trad Music Awards. Ali Hutton of Treacherous Orchestra is on guitar; and James Mackintosh, well known from Capercaillie and the Michael McGoldrick Band is on drums and percussion.
Sunday 9th June Afternoon FREE 
open session and evening ceilidh/concert
The open session is at the Douglas Hotel. As before, join in or just nurse a pint and recover your breath.
Brodick Hall 7.30 Ceilidh/Concert
The Kilbride Ceilidh Band has its own publicity slogan. – Nae tapsalteerie. Loosely interpreted, it means No Slacking. As they put it, ‘Stay on your tootsies and kick up dust with the oldest Arran ceilidh band since Noah was a boy.’ They add, ‘Wet pants and sweaty armpits guaranteed. Skinny-malinky lang legs and big banana feet welcome.’ Well, there you go. You have been warned.
To give the Kilbride players a pause for gasping and refreshment, the vibrant band called Tyde take over – and there’s no let-up! 
Heather Gessey (fiddle), Seth Tinsley (guitar), and Andrew Waite (accordion) play furious and frantic tunes interspersed with suddenly touching,
contemplative songs. Currently promoting their second album, ‘The Hidden Spoon’, this act is definitely one to brag about afterwards. ‘I heard them in Brodick, 2013.’ ‘Go on – did you really? Wow.’
If you are still able to stand after that, cruise – or stagger – up the road to the Ormidale Hotel, where from 9.30-on, a FREE session will be running.
You can find all prices and details on the Folk Festival website. Tickets are available online from www.arranevents.com or can be bought at the Brodick Post Office.The direct link is
http://www.arranevents.com/arranfolkfestival2013.php
And next year? Jon Hollingworth explainsWe are hugely grateful to our sponsors, the Isle of Arran Distillery, The Ormidale Hotel and the Douglas Hotel, and to many individuals on the island – but it looks unlikely that we can cover the costs on ticket prices alone. Government funding for the arts is a thing of the past. If the Arran Folk Festival is to continue, it will need to be through a DIY effort, similar to the self-help that got Arran through its week of no power in the blizzard crisis. ‘Crowd-funding’ does not ask for any money now. What it asks is that anyone who wants to see the Folk Festival continue will pledge a contribution next year. If there is no festival, then nobody pays any money. But the pledges matter. If there are enough of them to make the festival look viable, then next year’s festival will go ahead. Then, and only then, we will ask you to chip in whatever amount you promised. The vital thing is to show we have public support, because this could also attract larger sponsors. We have set a target of what I think our current shortfall will be and so far we have received promises of 31% of that total- so there’s quite a way to go before we find out if we will receive Obviously, the bigger the crowd is, the less they need to find. Even a pledge of £2 will do the trick if enough people promise it. We have contacted everyone on our mailing list and have posted it on Facebook and Twitter, and are asking everyone to forward the link to as many contacts as they can. If ten people each tell another ten people who tell a further ten, we will only need a very small amount of money from each of them, so nobody will be seriously out of pocket. The direct link to our crowd-funding project is http://bloomvc.com/project/Arran-Folk-Festival-2013-1. Let’s hope the scheme works! |
This year’s logo for the Folk Festival is by the multi-talented Katherine O’Donnelly, who won
the High School competition with this immensely lively design. Neatly and with great spirit, it
incorporates all the necessary information while also establishing that Arran is a vibrant and
sometimes windy island where anything may happen. Brilliant!
