21-23 July 2000
The end of July will see a festival to celebrate the singing traditions of North-East Scotland, Orkney, England, and Ireland in the unique setting of Tom and Anne Reid's farm in rural Aberdeenshire - Cullerlie Farm Park. The weekend is a unique celebration, bringing together outstanding traditional singers from the North East of Scotland, Orkney, England, and Ireland. The event is especially for those who like to hear, enjoy and join in the traditional singing.
The weekend includes concerts featuring the guest singers, sing-arounds for everyone who wants to join in, workshops on writing bothy ballads and farmhouse cooking, and rural crafts including rope-making, drystane dyking, and crook-making. Jack Webster, one of Scotland’s best known journalists, will deliver a talk on farm life in the North-East.
A CD of the most popular songs of the local folksinger Daisy Chapman will be launched during the Traditional Singing Weekend on Saturday afternoon by Daisy Chapman’s niece Mary Pacitti and her husband Louis Pacitti. Daisy, from Rosehearty, made a name for herself singing locally and her popularity grew. She appeared with some of the top names in folk music circles and won Grampian’s Brose Cup in 1969 and took a second in 1970 with the ‘Clochondichters’ Bothy Nichts’ team. The CD will include Daisy’s best-known songs and also two long-forgotten ballads Ythan Side and Walks o’ Udny.
The guest singers will include Joe Aitken, recognised as one of the finest exponents of the North-East 'bothy' style; Gordon Easton of Tyree, a bothy ballad singer, expert diddler, storyteller and fiddler; the singer Scott Gardiner of Forfar; Barbara Grieve of Harray, Orkney, a fine performer of her local repertoire and promoter of the Orcadian dialect; the singer Roger Hinchliffe from Lodge Moor near Sheffield; John Kennedy from Cullybackey, County Antrim, entertainer and master of the 'crack', who has a fund of traditional songs, ballads and whistle tunes, some of which are highly unusual; Will Noble, from Shepley in the Yorkshire Pennines, has a rich bass voice and was British Drystane Walling Champion; Tom ('Tam') Reid, the 'Bothy Ballad King', a favourite at festivals throughout Scotland, as well as in France and the USA; Grace Toland of Clonmany, Inishowen; and John Waltham, who will be singing the songs of his native Dorset.
Bookings may be made by contacting the following: Traditional Singing Weekend, Cullerlie Farm Park, Echt, Skene, Aberdeenshire AB32 6XL (Tel: 01330 860549).
The festival is organised jointly by Tom and Anne Reid of Cullerlie Farm Park in association with the Elphinstone Institute and its Director, Dr Ian Russell, at the University of Aberdeen (Tel: 01224 272996 Fax: 01224 272728), and sponsored by The North East of Scotland Heritage Trust, Coupers Fish Processors, English Traditional Singing Weekend, and other anonymous donors.
Cullerlie Farm Park also hosted the Bon Accord Steam Rally on the weekend of 24-25 June, 2000.
Further Information: Tina Kenworthy, University Press Officer (Tel: 01224 273778).
University Press Office on telephone +44 (0)1224-273778 or email a.ramsay@admin.abdn.ac.uk.