First Gigs on Sale for Edinburgh Tradfest

Edinburgh Tradfest is delighted to announce the first of its gigs for 2025 are now on sale.

Article Source: Edinburgh Tradfest
Last Updated: 5 February 2025 16:19

The festival’s full programme of live music, workshops, film, and traditional storytelling will launch on Tuesday 11 March, thanks to support from the National Lottery through Creative Scotland and the William Grant Foundation.

Opening Edinburgh Tradfest on Friday 2 May, is Scotland’s most sought-after piper and composer Ross Ainslie. He’ll be performing with the Sanctuary Band, an incredibly talented line-up of musicians: Greg Lawson (Fiddle), Paul Towndrow (Saxophone) Steve Byrnes (guitar), Hamish Napier (keyboard), James Lindsay (bass) and John Blease (drums and percussion).

Joining them at the Queens Hall is special guest Terra Kin aka Hannah Findlay. BBC Introducing Scottish Act of the Year in 2023, Hannah’s fingerstyle guitar, atmospheric soundscapes, and ‘crunchy’ harmonies have earned them much critical acclaim.

Also headlining the Festival’s opening weekend is folk trio Leveret (Saturday 3 May) made up of three of England’s leading folk musicians Andy Cutting (button accordion), Sam Sweeney (fiddle) and Rob Harbron (concertina). Plus, on Sunday the legendary Lauren MacColl will be playing tunes from her most recent album Haar and delving into her back catalogue of rich darkly-toned fiddle sounds with a stellar line-up on stage: Rachel Newton (harp), Anna Massie (guitar), Mhairi Hall (piano), Mairearad Green (accordion) and James Lindsay (bass).

This year’s festival commission For the Love of Trees is led by the acclaimed harpist, singer and composer Mary Macmaster (The Poozies) who will celebrate the magnificence of our trees with songs and tunes, old and new, performed by a specially configured band made up of some of Scotland’s best: Amy Macdougall (vocals), Donald Hay (percussion), Mairearad Green (accordion, pipes), Pete Harvey (cello) and Ciaran Ryan (banjo/fiddle).

Later in the week, audiences will be treated to an up-tempo session by bluegrass/old time/ragtime stringband from Richmond Virginia The Hot Seats; and singer songwriter and pianist Beth Malcolm who was crowned Scots singer of the year in 2022 and again in 2024.

Furthermore, this year’s early evening programme kicking off at 6.30pm will include folk trio Divergence (Freya Rae, Siannie Moodie and Tim Lane) so named because of their passion for playing non-traditional instruments in traditionally inspired music including the more unusual tongue drum and the silver Boehm system flute. Also packing out the early evening venues will be Belgian’s finest Hartwin Trio (Hartwin Dhoore on accordion, Flavia Escartin on cello, and Pavel Souvandjiev on violin); Finnish power-fiddle duo Teho whose music combines fluently Finnish traditional fiddling, Norwegian halling, Swedish polska, bebop, western swing and their own contemporary folk music; Morag Brown & Lewis Powell-Reid who perform pacy traditional tunes from Scotland and as far afield as the Balkans; and The Travelling Janes formed by award winning vocalist Ali Affleck in 2023, combining well-known traditional folk tunes with old folk songs from the USA and Canada.

PLUS …MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED – PROGRAMME LAUNCH 11 MARCH

Douglas Robertson and Jane-Ann Purdy, co-producers of Edinburgh Tradfest said: “This year’s Edinburgh Tradfest line-up is our best yet with some incredible international touring bands and a very strong showing from Scotland’s finest. Expect lush instrumentals, stirring songs and foot-tapping tunes to fill your ears and hearts every day of the festival. We can’t wait for it to start.”

Musician Ross Ainslie said: “I’m really looking forward to bringing the Sanctuary Band to launch Edinburgh Tradfest this year, I’ve always loved playing in the Queens Hall it’s a very iconic venue. I’ve recently released a new album called Pool so we will be playing some tracks from that along with tracks from my other albums Sanctuary and Vana. As a band we don’t get together to perform that often so when we do it’s always a special night.”

Musician Lauren MacColl said: “I’m over the moon to be playing Edinburgh Tradfest this year with my band. The festival has become a real highlight in the folk & trad calendar, with a reputation for bold and creative curation. After a brilliant start to the year at Celtic Connections, we can’t wait to bring this music to the Traverse this May.”

The full programme for this year’s Edinburgh Tradfest will be launched on Tuesday 11 March2025. The festival includes live music, workshops, film, and traditional storytelling thanks to continued support from the National Lottery through Creative Scotland and the William Grant Foundation.

Edinburgh Tradfest 2025 will run from Friday 2 May - Monday 12 May. For tickets and more information visit edinburghtradfest.com

Image: Ross Ainslie who will open this year’s Edinburgh Tradfest with the Sanctuary Band on Friday 2 May

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First Gigs on Sale for Edinburgh Tradfest

Edinburgh Tradfest is delighted to announce the first of its gigs for 2025 are now on sale.

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