Harvest Festival

The Second Hairst - the Harvest Folk Festival on Deeside - run by our 2012 Artist in Residence Frieda Morrison took place over the weekend of 28-30 September 2012 at Potarch and Finzean in Aberdeenshire.

The Second Hairst - Folk Festival

The festival was a huge success with packed houses at both main events. On the Friday night, the Harvest Sessions CD was launched which contains fourteen songs from The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection. This took place at the Harvest Supper where guests heard performances by the singers on the CD, namely Aileen Carr, the Spiers family and Frieda Morrison, with Cornkisters from Hector Riddell, the Bothy Ballad King.

On Saturday night, Finzean Hall was packed to hear the first half featuring the traditional singers already mentioned plus Alison McMorland, Geordie McIntyre and the fiddle player, Sarah Beattie. In the second half, folksinger Dougie MacLean took to the stage, and Finzean Hall rung to the sounds of “encore” at 10.30 at night. Frieda introduced her role as Artist in Residence and talked about Greig-Duncan, leading up to the next festival where a seminar will be given on this topic.

In total, over 400 people were introduced to the collection over the course of the weekend. Songs from the collection featured in the concerts and also in informal sessions. The Scots language was emphasised throughout the weekend, both in sung and spoken contexts, by not only the main performers but by others singers present, such as Geordie Murison from Stonehaven.

Back row (left to right): Hector Riddell, Tom Spiers, Frieda Morrison, Derek Summers, Lorna Summers, Maggie Spiers, Aileen Carr Front row (left to right): Geordie McIntyre, Emma Spiers, Dougie MacLean, Alison McMorland, Sarah Beattie