We can't tell you the whole programme, but here's a few of people booked for Fiddle 2009:

Aly Bain and Ale Moller

Session A9

Iain MacFarlane and the Henderson Family

Beolach and Dannsa

Angus Grant

Caoimhin O Raghallaigh

The Scots Fiddle Festival are having a short AGM followed by some food and a session on Mon 15th June 7.30pm at the Alisa Craig Hotel, 24 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, EH7-5AH.

We will inform you on how the planning is going, hear about this years programme and find out how you can get involved too.

Please do not be put off by the phrase 'AGM' we will be trying to keep it as breif and interesting as possable then we will get the tunes started - so bring an instrument and your musical friends along with you!

A GREAT FIDDLE FESIVAL in EDINBURGH

An article reviewing the 2008 festival: FELLOWSHIP OF THE FIDDLE

Is Fiddle fest each year in Edinburgh the largest UK annual gathering of fiddlers and fiddle music aficionados?

Fiddle 2008 attracted more than 4000 visitors. Although clearly the majority were from the Central belt, groups came from as far away as Cowal, Aberdeen, Shetlands and the Orkneys, as well as many visitors from Engand. They took part in an exceptional weekend of concerts, recitals, workshops, talks and sessions. This was not just a festival for players. Non players had a rare opportunity to hear fourteen concerts and recitals of the highest calibre from home grown and foreign talent.

The Scots Fiddle Festival Musical Director, Eilidh Steel, put on a near perfect structure of music and events for the weekend. A programme which should have appealed to all strands of ‘traditional’ music enthusiasts, without somehow falling into the trap of being seen to try to please everyone, and then falling firmly between two stools!

The opening ‘Heat the Hoose’ concert epitomised two main strands of our vibrant music. The now well established Jenna Reid Band opened the concert. Always a fiddler who pleases the crowd at any pace, she is at her most effective and plangent playing of tunes such as Ivan Drever’s lovely, lingering ‘ Leaving Stour’ She played the most moving rendition I’ve heard of one of my all-time favourites ‘Hector the Hero’. Jenna has played in such high- powered traditional bands as Deaf Shepherd, Fiddler’s Bid and Dochas. Her other main band, Filska, are onto their fourth album, and clearly show the influences of Jenna’s early tuition from two giants of the Shetland fiddle tradition – Tom Anderson and Willie Hunter.

The festival was my first exposure to ‘The Chair’ from Orkney. Their comment – albeit a little tongue in cheek- on opening the ‘Manly Set’ may set the scene for their high energy ‘stomp’ music: ‘We’re not into namby-pamby, pinkie in the air Edinburgh tunes; we like music that puts hairs on your crochets!’ The audience reacted phenomenally with an unusual level of dancing in the aisles. Even the staunchest traditionalists could not resist foot tapping and clapping along. Clearly this is a band who will hit the festival trail in a big way.

Recitals over the weekend included a great international flavour with Piia Kleemola, an accomplished Finnish fiddler, who focussed on Southern Ostrobothnia polkas. Her own compositions combined traditional Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish styles. A great find for me was ‘Habbadam’, a trio of fiddle, soprano sax and guitar, who recently won the Danish Folk Music Debut of the Year. A unique blend of old and new, this young group had a stage presence well beyond their years, and could well trigger an interest in a style of playing not well known on these shores.

The final concert of the weekend closed appropriately and boldly with an Irish solo fiddler. Kevin Burke is the leading exponent of a highly ornamented Sligo style. Yet his playing is thoughtful, measured and expressive and he ‘brings an element of joy to even the most plaintive melody.’ For a cash strapped festival to bring ‘one of the greatest Celtic fiddlers alive’ (New York Times) on board was a great coup!

The weekend was packed with classes, sessions and a ceilidh, and ensured that musicians and listeners alike had a great time! The classes are always fascinating, drawing on the international performers who teach their speciality eg Asturian music, playing with pipes. Sometimes a tyro finds that everyone else in the class has been playing for years, but it always seems to work. Speaking of which, there are formal slow sessions and very slow sessions, which encourage those of us who can’t measure up to the cracking pace set by the youngsters in the sessions in the common area and elsewhere. The ceilidh is always well su