Shetland’s calendar looks much more familiar as the islands re-open

The echoes will have barely faded when Mareel – and several other venues around Shetland – welcome performers and audiences to the 40^th Shetland Folk Festival. This anniversary should have been celebrated two years ago but had to be put on ice in 2020 and 2021.

To the delight of folk fans, this year will see several bands and individual performers return to the festival to mark this milestone. They include the Poozies, who visited in 1991; and for those of us who saw them then, the memories are still fresh. Also here will be the outstanding Cape Breton multi-instrumentalist, J.P. Cormier, who has four previous Shetland appearances to his credit. He’ll be accompanied by his frequent collaborator, Nova Scotian singer-songwriter Dave Gunning.

Bands paying return visits include eight-piece Danish group Habadekuk, who appeared at the festival in 2015 and bring a mix of folk, salsa and big band jazz. Finnish group, Frigg, fuse Nordic folk music and bluegrass styles, or “Nordgrass”, as it’s come to be known. Five-piece Le Vent du Nord will again be heading over from Québec.

But without doubt, the best-known singer-songwriter at this year’s festival is Scotland’s Dougie McLean, who richly deserves the designation of national treasure. He was here in 1986 and 2006 and, over a 45-year career, he has appeared all over the world. His songs have been covered by dozens of other performers and his music has been included in several feature films. He performed his much-loved Caledonia to a worldwide audience of billions at the closing ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Local performers have always been an essential part of the festival – though ‘local’ is something of a misnomer, because many local bands and instrumentalists, such as Haltadans and the Revellers, have built reputations well beyond Shetland. This year, more than twenty local groups or individuals will be taking to festival stages.

You can find comprehensive details of all the local and visiting performers on the website. However, if you want to attend the festival, you’ll have to be quick: at the time of writing, several concerts had already sold out.

June sees the return of another highlight of past Shetland summers, the Classic Motor Show.

The show was first held in Lerwick in 1984 in Lerwick; there was no plan for it to become a regular event. However, there was a great response, so a second show was staged in 1986. Since then, it has been held every second year and has taken on much more than local significance, becoming an important date in the diaries of enthusiasts in Scotland and beyond.

It has also grown; cars, motorcycles, bicycles, models and photographs occupy two large and two smaller halls in the Clickimin Centre. More cars, as well as agricultural and commercial vehicles, buses and stationary engines, are accommodated in the car parks outside.

It’s planned to have these displays open to the public on Saturday 4^th and Sunday 5^th June, but the event normally extends over most of a week, with guided tours in classic vehicles organised on the Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday. These allow visiting exhibitors and enthusiasts to see many of the highlights of Shetland and of course the tours also offer local folk the chance to see these marvellous old cars, bikes, lorries and buses out and about on Shetland’s roads.

The programme is expected to run in very much the same way as in previous years, but – like anything else organised in these post-pandemic times – it may have to be adjusted to meet whatever government guidance is in force. The website will be updated as and when full details are known. If you’d like to register a vehicle for inclusion in the show, you can do so here.

Later in June, the focus shifts seaward, with the colourful presence in Lerwick of yachts participating in the challenging Round Britain and Ireland Race. The leading craft will set off from Plymouth on 29 May and, after the first of three compulsory 48-hour stops in Galway, are expected to arrive on 11 June, to be warmly welcomed by the Lerwick Boating Club and Lerwick Port Authority.

There are likely to be participants in the harbour until around the 18^th, when the remaining crews will probably be heading to the last of their intermediate stops at Blyth in Northumberland. These large, ocean-going yachts are a very impressive sight, whether seen around Shetland or at close quarters in the port. Fuller details of the race can be found here.

Less than a week after they’ve gone, another race arrives. The Shetland Race has been held for many years and there’s a real party atmosphere on the quayside as we welcome our guests. The first leg of this 36th race, from Bergen to Lerwick, will start at 12.55pm on 22^nd June and the flotilla will arrive in Lerwick the following day. There are fuller details here.

However, these two races – spectacular events though they are – represent just a fraction of the yachting and boating activity in the Shetland summer. Local regattas have always featured in the calendar, sea angling contests are popular and of course many local folk go boating and sailing independently. Both they and visitors can make use of an extensive network of local marinas and there are many quiet bays in which to drop anchor.

However, there are some very much larger craft to be seen in Shetland, and particularly Lerwick. Over recent years, the number of cruise ships visiting Shetland has grown dramatically and it’s now normal for a hundred or more to call each year. The first of them arrived in late March but four more are scheduled during April. Many are expected in May and visits are more or less daily during June, in fact up to four may be in port on the same day.

They vary in size. The smaller ‘expedition’ vessels may call not only at Lerwick but also at smaller ports, including Fair Isle, Scalloway or Baltasound. The larger ships focus on Lerwick and often bring over 2,000 passengers and hundreds of crew.

Typically, they’re in port for a day, with passengers enjoying organised coach tours to other parts of Shetland and having some time to explore the town. Some ships provide bicycles and locals are becoming used to the sight of upwards of a hundred cyclists tackling terrain which may be rather more hilly than they imagined.

It’s to be hoped that, having tasted what Shetland has to offer, they may be tempted to visit independently in years to come.

Back on dry land, another mainstay of the Shetland summer is the sequence of agricultural shows held from early August. The largest are at Cunningsburgh in the South Mainland, Voe in the North Mainland and Walls (Waas) in the West Mainland, but there are smaller events in other districts.

These shows are by no means confined to agriculture. There are, as you’d expect, cattle, sheep, goats, hens and so on, but there is a great deal more to them than that. Crafts of many kinds, but especially knitwear, are very much in evidence. There’s always lots of baking to be seen and, often, a display of photography. Prizes are awarded in dozens of different categories. They’re great social events, too; a chance to catch up with friends, certainly, and there may also be a dance in the evening to round off the day.

Later in the year, we can look forward to the return of four more of Shetland’s distinctive festivals. ScreenPlay, a film festival curated by film critic Mark Kermode, Professor Linda Ruth Williams and our own Kathy Hubbard, will run from 30^th August until 4^th September. It always features an outstanding selection of films, shown on the two screens in Mareel, and there are talks and conversations involving well-known actors and directors. Fuller details, when they become available, will appear here.

WordPlay, our literary festival, will take place from 22^nd to 25^th September. Shetland has long provided a fertile environment for writers and poets, and there is an astonishingly long list of local publications. What’s more, The New Shetlander is the longest-running literary magazine in Scotland. These are solid foundations on which to build and the festival offers readings, panel discussions and much more. Again, details will be published here once the programme is finalised.

Another of Shetland’s best-loved events, Shetland Wool Week, is also back in 2022, having run on a virtual, online basis for the past two years. Wool Week participants come from all over the world – even, in one year, from Antarctica – so the organisers have been giving careful thought to arrangements as we emerge from Covid. Taking account of that, the 2022 event will be a bit smaller in scale than in previous years, the hope being that normality will return in 2023.

This year, the dates are 24^th September to 2^nd October and you’ll be able to find out all the details on the website as they are announced.

Moving into October, there’s more music on offer, this time in the Shetland Fiddle and Accordion Festival, which will run from the 6^th to the 10^th. The festival brings together a wealth of musical talent. Bands from Shetland, Scotland and sometimes farther afield lay down setlists featuring Boston two-steps (traditionally, the first dance) eightsome reels, waltzes and more.

These are, of course, far from being the only events taking place across the islands this year. For example, Mareel operates a full film programme and several concerts are lined up for the next few months. Many local communities organise local dances, history exhibitions, talks, walks and a bewildering array of charity events.

There’ll no doubt be Lifeboat Days at Lerwick and Aith and our Tall Ship, Swan, is resuming its sailing schedule. Sunday afternoon teas in local halls, run as fundraisers by volunteers, are hugely popular.

But it would be remiss not to mention one local festival which has gained a Shetland-wide following. UnstFest, which will run from 11^th to 17^th July, is an astonishingly diverse celebration of Unst life that typically offers a programme overflowing with a truly remarkable range of activities – sixty or more! It’s a really impressive effort by what is a relatively small community.

Right across the islands, the large gaps in the diary that existed in 2020 and 2021 are being filled. Local folk will relish a return to something closer to normality and visitors are returning, with travel and accommodation bookings looking very healthy.

Let’s hope that we can all stay safe and that the summer shows Shetland at its best.