Shetland Fiddle Week – music and friendship

There's a buzz of energy around during Shetland Fiddle Week. The event offers participants the chance to learn the unique Shetland fiddle style and tunes in a culturally immersive experience.

During the week Lerwick's Islesburgh Community Centre becomes a hub for fiddle fanatics. Tutors and participants gather in lively groups around the venue, sharing their experiences of the week.

Visitor Georgiana Keane from the West Coast of Ireland, taking a break between classes, describes herself as “fiddle mad”. Delighted by her experience of Shetland Fiddle Week she believes the 26-hour journey to get here was well worth it and has already decided to book her place at next year’s festival. “Where else could you get fiddle teachers like this?” she says. “They are just incredible.”

Two well-known Shetland fiddlers, Jenna Reid and Lynda Anderson, organise the Shetland Fiddle Week, and hope it will continue to generate interest in the traditional style.

For Jenna, the Isleburgh Community Centre is a special venue for the event: “It's so warm. It's so welcoming. It's perfectly set up. Lynda and I have connections with this building musically: I came for my first fiddle lessons here and 'Da Forty Fiddlers' met here”. Da Forty Fiddlers was the nickname given to a group of Shetland musicians brought together by Tom Anderson to perform at the Shetland Hamefarin’ in 1960.

Jenna sees Shetland Fiddle Week as a way of protecting the islands’ precious fiddle tradition, allowing participants to come and learn from experienced tutors. She says: “It gives tutors the chance to pass on all these tunes that they've played for years and have learnt from all these fiddle greats.

"There's soon going to be a generation in Shetland that isn’t connected to the likes of Willie Hunter and Tom Anderson. A new wave of fiddle players is coming in and that’s wonderful, but you're getting farther and farther away from those early days. And it's so important to keep that tradition alive”.

Among the new generation is Ross Couper, one of a talented musical family.

Ross does not doubt the Shetland fiddle tradition will continue to thrive, with young Shetlanders keen to get in on the fun and sense of community that fiddling provides. He says: “Young people see the older ones doing it and they want to do it too. I think it's the social aspect of it. They can see we're all hanging out, having a real laugh with each other”.

In Ross’s view, what sets Shetland Fiddle Week apart from similar events is its holistic approach to the fiddle experience. He explains: “Fiddle weeks happen throughout Scotland. But a lot of the time, you just sit in a room and learn tunes. But here, there's excursions to go and see bits of Shetland that the visitors otherwise might not have seen."

At the 2024 fiddle week, Ross says, "We were down in Sandwick, and went to go and see some local arts and crafts … so folk get to see a bit of Shetland as well as learning the music of the place”.

That's part of the reason visitors become so immersed in the culture.

The workshops are intentionally small groups, fostering an intimate learning environment. With class numbers around seven or eight people, tutors can provide personalised guidance. This allows participants to bond even more quickly as does the event’s thoughtful programming.

Tutor Andrew Gifford explains: “A few participants have said that the general atmosphere has been very sociable. The first day of Fiddle Week on Monday wasn't a teaching day, it was a day spent at the museum, looking through archives and learning about Shetland dances. That was a really good way to kind of break the ice with one another and become friends from the outset”.

Concerts are also an important part of Shetland Fiddle Week, and participants are treated to solo performances from a wide range of accomplished local musicians. Andrew is still basking in the afterglow of an incredible evening of entertainment at the Carnegie Hall in Sandwick which he attended with fellow tutor Ross.

He explains: “There was just an unbelievable concert. I left there thinking: ‘I don't think there's any better fiddle players in the world than what we heard last night’”.

The festival is a cultural melting pot, with attendees from all over the world. Eva Wey, travelled from Switzerland, has been inspired by her Shetland Fiddle Week experience and by the islands, and has also enjoyed sharing her own musical tradition with her new friends:

“I think it's a beautiful place. The colour of the sea, the wind, all these old rocks and special, places. It gives me a lot of inspiration for my music. I feel I’ve been welcomed with open arms. The people here are very open-minded to all styles of music, and I’ve felt that people have been very interested in hearing about alpine folk music too.”

From talking to participants and tutors, it’s clear that Shetland Fiddle Week is not just about music, it’s about forging lifelong friendships with kindred spirits.

As Jenna says: “When it’s an intense week and everyone's so invested in it, you're all on the same page and you quickly become a cohesive group. The fiddle is just such a social tradition, and the sharing of it doesn't always have to happen in a classroom. It’s all about joining in the sessions, trying new tunes out and enjoying the unexpected moments that can often turn out to be those little gems”.

The 2025 Shetland Fiddle Week is from 4th to 8th August 2025.