CANCELLED:
NAFCo 2020, Limerick, Ireland, 24–28 June 2020
RESCHEDULED DATE: 23–27 June 2021
The rescheduled North Atlantic Fiddle Convention will take place in Limerick, Ireland, 23–27 June 2021, hosted by our friends at the University of Limerick. The theme is Fiddling and its Frontiers: Transforming Practices and Rethinking Questions.
NAFCo returns to Aberdeen 11–15 July 2018
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Concerts, workshops, live gigs, interviews, sessions, busking, an academic conference and more!
Featuring traditions of fiddle music and dance from countries and communities around the North Atlantic.
Reserve these dates in your diary!
The convention is timed to celebrate the re-opening of two special Aberdeen venues that are currently being redeveloped and transformed, the Music Hall and the Art Gallery.
Find the latest blog posts from musicians, dancers and academics here
'How often at a scholarly gathering dedicated to folk, ethnic or traditional music, have the participants burst out of their academic strait jackets, deserted their ivory towers, and shared with others, late into the night, the music that has encouraged them to pursue a lifetime of study? And how often at a folk or world music festival have participants debated into the small hours the merits and demerits of a particularly innovative act in terms of authenticity and traditionality? This thinking helped forge the idea behind NAFCo, thereby bringing together two sides of the same coin, those who practice fiddle music and those who preach it.'
Ian Russell and Mary Anne Alburger, ‘Connecting Cultures’ in Driving the Bow
The festival has moved around the world, spreading its musical influences wherever it goes, from the shores of Scotland to as far west as St John’s in Newfoundland, Canada, then on to Derry, Northern Ireland, and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Details for past NAFCo festivals can be found here: NAFCo 2015, NAFCo 2012, NAFCo 2010, NAFCo 2006, NAFCo 2001.
NAFCo is a formally consituted organisation with its home base being the Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen. Emeritus Professor Ian Russell of the Elphinstone Institute is the current President of NAFCo. Carley Williams is the Festival Director of the 2018 festival.
Its genius is that it is both academic conference and folk festival.
Ken Perlman, Journal of American Folklore, Summer 2014