Festival sees Levellers' men return to
old stomping ground
Previewing the 2002 Orkney Folk Festival

Winner of the 2001 Best Newcomer Award in the BBC Folk Awards, Bill Jones will be gracing Orkney Folk Festival stages this year, appearing as a duo and playing accordion and whistle.

This year’s Orkney Folk Festival looks set to be another stormer with news that members of chart-topping band The Levellers are to make an appearance at Orkney’s 20th annual folk feast.

Fans will remember their last visit up here, when they played to a packed Kirkwall audience. As with that gig they will be performing under the guise of Drunk in Public, including Mark Chadwick, Jon Sevink, Simon Friend and Rev Hammer. This time they bring their repertoire of protest songs, drinking songs, and dancing songs to Stomp One at Matchmakers on the Friday night, with support provided by Orkney’s own hell raisers, Silver Penguins.

Drunk in Public are not the only big name to be appearing at the festival to be held from may 23-26. BBC Scotland legend, Archie Fisher will be taking time out from presenting “Travelling Folk” to visit Orkney and perform material picked up over generations of folk singing.

The festival will be kicked off with Shetland favourites, Fiddlers Bid headlining the opening concert in Stromness. Now performing as a six-piece, they will be playing tracks from their new album, Da Farder Ben Da Welcomer. Also appearing that night will be “Scotland’s premier guitar genius”, Tony McManus. He’ll be dazzling the audience with some frenetic fretwork and some beautiful ballads.

Winner of the 2001 Best Newcomer Award in the BBC Folk Awards, Bill Jones will be gracing our stages with her fine singing. She’ll be appearing as a duo and playing accordion and whistle. Also she will be helping out in the workshops on the Saturday, as will many of the visiting artists.

The educational element of the festival is one which may not be seen by the general public, but is still an important aspect of what has now become a highlight of the kids year. The Ortak Youth Concert, Home Made Jam and school visits provide ample opportunity for younger players to demonstrate their own skills and learn some new ones from the professionals.

Tony McManus - one of the artists scheduled for this year's Folk Festival

Other attractions across the weekend include the Transatlantic Concert on the Friday night which will showcase some of the best talent from Ireland, Newfoundland, Fair Isle and Faroe. Ireland’s ‘Best Traditional Newcomers’, North Cregg will perform alongside Spaelimenniner I Hoydolum, Fridarey and Fergus O’Byrne and Jim Payne.

The International Concert makes a welcome return on Saturday night with a Caribbean flavour to warm the cockles! Solid Steel will provide the music to what should be an exciting night of mambo, rhumba and salsa!

This year’s outer parish dances are Deerness on Thursday, Orphir and Westray on Friday and Shapinsay, Sandwick and Longhope on Saturday. Also look out for the Greentrax concert, Robin Laing’s Whisky, Women and Song show and the new Highland Park Festival Club.

Programmes will be on general release this weekend and tickets will be on sale on April 29. See www.orkneyfolkfestival.com for more details.