CREATIVE COMMUNITY
Whatever the future may bring, you can guarantee that Orcadians will “hadhirgaan” and keep on expressing their creativity. This includes our annual calendar of festivals, which overflows with talent, innovation and imagination from near and far.
Last May, just weeks into lockdown, Orkney successfully presented an international music festival for online audiences.
Orkney Folk Festival is continuing to keep spirits high this spring, once more delighting audiences with a remote and digital version of its globally acclaimed weekend of music. With hopes to create something truly special, while remaining a safe way for folk to take in the delights of the county’s folk scene, Orkney Folk Festival 2021 aims to shine a spotlight on the isles. The Big Lockdown Special of 2020 amassed more than 31,000 views online, and organisers hope to build on that success, this May.
This June, there are hopes to bring audiences a smorgasbord of art, music and drama in yet another of Orkney’s internationally renowned festivals. Traditionally, each midsummer brings together creative folk from Orkney and afar, both amateur and professional, to present the weeklong St Magnus Festival.
Beginning in 1977, the festival has presented operas, hosted professional orchestras from around the world, and produced community performances involving talented Orcadians of all ages.
Though last year’s festival was unable to go ahead, organisers have said that they hope to deliver a suite of performances in some fashion, this June. Already, plans are afoot for a production of George Mackay Brown’s play, The Storm Watchers, in celebration of what would have been the famous Orkney writer’s 100th birthday.
September is typically a bumper month for Orkney events. Between two music festivals and an international science festival, there’s barely a spare minute to catch your breath.
Last autumn saw the Orkney International Science Festival triumph despite the odds, bringing together a week-long programme of events presented online. Lectures, workshops, and family activities went ahead by video conference, broadcast live on the festival’s website and via Youtube. Speakers from across the globe tuned in to present their talks, including one lecture given from a boat on the other side of the Atlantic!
This year, organisers hope to build on the themes of last year’s festival, which focused on the coasts and waters, and they also hope to turn their virtual microscopes towards the topic of climate change. September is also known in Orkney as a month filled with music, traditionally bringing audiences a weekend of rock followed by a weekend of blues. Both the Orkney Rock Festival and the Orkney Blues Festival were unable to go ahead last year — and both were sorely missed by music-makers and music-lovers, home and away. It can only be hoped that these epic weekends of rock and revelry can make a comeback in the near future.
After all these festivals, you’d surely think that folk would be a bit tired out? Perhaps it’s fitting then that the final event in our annual calendar of festivals is one that involves putting your feet up by the fireside. The Orkney Storytelling Festival takes its audiences on a journey over the rolling hills and stormy seas of our island home through folk tales, both traditional and new, as well as to further shores. Last year, the festival successfully presented a weekend of storytelling online, with audiences tuning in from their own armchairs.
And much more goes on in Orkney besides these regular headline events. Our isles are full of natural-born performers, whether they be actors, dancers or musicians.
With a thriving amateur theatre scene, it isn’t unusual to see members of the community treading the boards in colourful costumes. In the face of theatre and venue closures last year, performers had to get creative. Who would have thought we’d ever see an outdoor performance of Hamlet in Finstown, or an Orkney pantomime broadcast on radio?
Art galleries have had to use their imagination, and sometimes modern technology, to deliver the regular dose of local colour they’re known for — and so many artists have taken the opportunity to brighten folk’s days with their work.
Just because they haven’t been able to share their work with you in person, that doesn’t mean that Orkney’s musicians have been silenced. Indeed, several Orkney groups have managed to produce full albums over the past year, including big names like The Chair, Electric Mother and Gnoss.
After a year like no other, it just goes to show how strongly creativity runs in the veins of our island community. We can’t wait for our performers and makers to show the full force of that talent, once more.
Home to many renowned traditional musicians, Orkney nurtures a thriving music scene. Pictured above are Fara’s Kristan Harvey and Jeana Leslie. Below is award-winning local musician and music tutor Douglas Montgomery performing at the Orkney Folk Festival.