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What's Involved

There will be something new EVERY year to tempt you back again...and again (hopefully).

Shetland's Fiddle Frenzy is not about musical academics. As part of the Frenzy package you will also have the opportunity to:

• Travel round Shetland to meet those making the music in different styles both old(er) and young, learn from them and make music with them.

• Personally see, meet, learn from and perform alongside some of our more famous traditional musicians such as Fiddlers Bid,  Bryan Gear, Filska, the Cullivoe Fiddlers and Gibby Hutchison, to name but a few. See and meet some of our acclaimed musicians.

• Learn Shetland guitar accompaniment from John Hutchison (John o' the Burns).

• Learn more about Shetland's unique culture and history. Visit unique locations, see our world-famous wildlife close up and take in the scenery. To do this, select one of our regular afternoon 'Escape Committee' options and leave behind the tutorial element of the festival for a while and instead take part in one of our many additional (and perhaps more relaxing) cultural workshops. These include storytelling, traditional dance, indigenous crafts (knitting, spinning etc) and guided visits and tours all over the islands (including the outlying islands).

• Concerts featuring the cream of Shetland artists - young and old(er) - traditional and contemporary. You may even get the chance to perform on stage too, usually in large groups, but again only if you want too of course. These concerts are held everywhere from rural public halls to our Theatre “the Garrison” and even to our larger sports centres. All concerts have top quality sound and lighting production, although just occasionally we will do a fully 'acoustic' one to show how things used to be done - or as some believe, how it should still be done. These concerts are open to the Shetland public.

• Take part in traditional country-dances - to well known Shetland dance bands, such as Alan Nicholson Dance band and the exciting young Leeshinaat again usually in rural areas of Shetland. And yes we will teach you the dances and steps before you go. Accordions and fiddles galore, but be warned these are not for the faint hearted. These events are also open to the public and you will find the natives very friendly, if past experiences are anything to go by.

• Take part in Shetland's legendary traditional sessions in some of our equally legendary pubs and venues such as 'The Lounge' where all our great musicians, past and present, performed in more 'social' surroundings. For those that prefer a 'slow session' we provide your own 'club' with session leaders sympathetic to your needs. For those that want to sit in with, or take on, the more lively sessions - well of course you can do so too, right alongside some of today's 'greats'.

• Become an official 'Frenzied Follower'. Yes you don't have to play anything at all to enjoy Shetland's Fiddle Frenzy. You can come along and just take part in the cultural / fun workshops, the guided tours etc., where it's not mandatory to do anything of course, except enjoy yourselves. You can also take in all the concerts and dances and the sessions. And if all that fails... well simply 'do your own thing', with our help if you want it.

Shetland's Fiddle Frenzy also offers you the chance to meet and mix with all the locals, usually the length and breadth of Shetland, in very social and convivial surroundings. We hope this approach offers our visitors a unique opportunity to 'get right under the skin' of Shetland as a community and find out what makes it (and us) tick, from a very personal perspective. Past reports indicate that we are succeeding in our goal.

“I felt like I’d been made an honorary Shetlander for the week …. I’ll definitely be back next year”

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