Amongst Orkney’s best known and much-loved musical exports, home-grown quartet Fara return to the festival in 2023, hot on the heels of releasing their third album, Energy Islands, to wide acclaim in September 2022. Bursting with brand new self-penned instrumental tracks, and with songs adapted from the words of Orcadian poets, Energy Islands is fuelled by their native Orkney’s revolutionary role in renewable energy.
Fusing the talents of three fine Orcadian fiddlers and vocalists - Jeana Leslie, Catriona Price and Kristan Harvey - alongside stand-out Highland pianist and newest member Rory Matheson, Fara have firmly secured their foothold at the forefront of the Scottish folk scene since their debut at 2014’s Orkney Folk Festival well and truly took the festival by storm.
Their unique mix of spell-binding vocals, intricately woven fiddle harmonies and energetic closers, combined with an obvious kinship born in childhood delights audiences far and wide. Shortlisted in 2015’s Scots Trad Music Awards for Up and Coming Act of the Year, the band performed a triumphant set at the 2017 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards at the Albert Hall as Horizon Award nominees, and have gone on to win a German Critics’ Choice Award and a Live Act of the Year nomination at 2019’s Scots Trad Music Awards. They continue to tour internationally, with sell-out performances at festivals across Europe, Australia and North America, ahead of their debut tour in Asia later in 2023.