The festival’s acclaimed showcase project, Orkney Folk: The Gathering, had its heralded mainland Scotland premiere at the 2013 outing of the world-renowned Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. Over 25 Orcadian musicians and singers took to the stage in the city’s Old Fruitmarket on Saturday, February 2, selling the venue out, in what was billed as “a resplendent example of local music attaining global calibre”. After the 90-minute show, the 700-strong audience rose to their feet in a rapturous standing ovation, prompting one reviewer to write “they came, they saw, they conquered”…
The all-Orcadian line-up and repertoire of The Gathering, which premiered at the 2011 Orkney Folk Festival, then joined forces with an equally-weighted gathering of Shetland musicians, to form The Isles Gathering, which played at both the Shetland and Orkney Folk Festivals in May 2013. With a house band in excess of 24 musicians – let alone both counties’ guest musicians – the cast brought the audience in both Lerwick’s Mareel, and Kirkwall’s Pickaquoy Centre to their feet once again.