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Phew… what a weekend!

Thank you to every single person who made the 40th Orkney Folk Festival such a roaring success. We are very proud to still be going strong at forty years young, let alone to have well and truly surpassed all previous attendance records in our anniversary year, with over 8,500 tickets sold across the weekend.

To all of our amazing artists, visiting and based in Orkney, thank you for a tremendous weekend. It was a joy to have everyone in Stromness and across the county, and just a shame we have to say cheerio after four days together. Thanks also to our amazing production crews, on sound, light and stage, as well as the many staff and volunteers working in venues over the weekend. It’s a very busy weekend for folks behind the scenes, and we owe an enormous debt of thanks to everyone who plays a part in putting bringing our events to life.

We couldn’t stage the festival without a considerable level of financial support, whether in cash or in kind. A great many local and national businesses sponsor both the festival and individual events throughout our programme...

The fortieth edition of the famed Orkney Folk Festival opens tonight, Thursday – and in triumphant style, with the event smashing all previous ticket records.

For the first time in the event’s four decades, over 8,000 concert tickets have sold for the four-day island festival, representing an uplift in excess of 10% on the previous record – set just last year, when the festival returned to a live event following the pandemic.

One of Scotland’s longest-running folk festivals, the Orkney Folk Festival is set to welcome over 50 acts and over 300 musicians to the festival over the coming weekend. The anniversary line-up sees the much anticipated return of globally renowned Scottish folk pioneers, Capercaillie, taking to the stage tomorrow night, Friday, alongside a local orchestra fronted by the Orkney Schools Instrumental Service.

Musicians and singers from USA, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Wales, England and throughout Scotland will appear alongside scores of home-grown Orcadian artists in venues throughout Stromness and the Orkney mainland.

Making their way from Austin, Texas, the legendary hot jazz and Western swing group Hot Club of Cowtown will appear at the festival on a UK exclusive, ahead of a European...

The full programme for the 40th anniversary Orkney Folk Festival has just been announced, with 48 acts from around the world set to converge upon Stromness, in Orkney’s west mainland, over May 25-28. 

Leading artists from the USA, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, England, Wales and throughout Scotland will join 28 home-grown Orcadian artists at the festival.  

A total of 47 events in 18 venues across the county form the landmark anniversary programme – including concerts, ceilidhs, clubs, workshops and family events. Whilst more than half of all events will take place in the festival’s hometown of Stromness, festival shows will also take place in Birsay, Finstown, Harray, Kirkwall, Orphir, Sanday, Sandwick, St Margaret’s Hope, Stenness and Tankerness. Two long-term supporters of the festival, Highland Park and Swannay Brewery, will also open their visitor centre doors to festival gigs for the first time in the 40th anniversary.

Globally renowned Scottish folk group Capercaillie will return to the festival on Friday 26 May, having first appeared in the county at the fourth Orkney Folk Festival, in 1986. They will be joined in an unprecedented collaboration with a local orchestra, headed up by...

The globally renowned Scottish folk group Capercaillie are set to appear at the 40th Orkney Folk Festival in May, in an unprecedented collaboration with a local orchestra led by Orkney Schools Instrumental Music Service, supported by players from Orkney Camerata and Kirkwall Town Band.

Fast approaching their own 40th anniversary, Capercaillie join 24 acts already announced for the landmark edition of the festival, with artists from the USA, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, England, Wales and throughout Scotland set to join home-grown Orcadian musicians.

A seminal presence in contemporary Celtic music, Capercaillie are revered for their many ground-breaking achievements – including performances in over 30 countries, and over a million album sales – and beloved as a thrilling live act. With just a handful of appearances in the county following their Orcadian debut in 1986, at the fourth Orkney Folk Festival, it has now been over 20 years since the band last visited the county. They are set to return in just three months, in an unprecedented collaboration with an orchestra from across Orkney. 

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