Aidan Moffat, RM Hubbert and 47Soul headline Solas Festival 2018
Press release
Solas Festival, Scotland’s midsummer festival of music, arts and ideas, is delighted to announce its headline acts and some early programme details for 2018.
The festival is nestled in the idyllic countryside setting of The Bield at Blackruthven in Perthshire, and has run over midsummer weekend every year since 2009. This year, the festival’s theme is Drift, and various artists, performances and discussions will explore the drift between peoples and places – from the songs and stories of Gaelic traveller communities, to the darker connections between Scotland and Empire. Audiences are invited to come and examine how people move in and out Scotland and around our world, and what those journeys can mean.
Music
The headline acts on Friday and Saturday night will be Jordanian/Palestinian shamstep act 47Soul, whose debut album Balfron Promise just made The Guardian’s World Music Album of the Month, and Aidan Moffat and RM Hubbert, who will be performing songs from their new collaborative album. Rising Scottish music star Siobhan Wilson, a regular on the BBC 6Music playlist, will also be playing a key set as part of seminal Edinburgh music label Song By Toad’s tenth anniversary showcase at Solas Festival, alongside acts including Johnnie Common and Adam Stafford. Other acts on the lineup include Withered Hand, folk singer Grace Petrie, Roseanne Reid, Scottish electronica act Bossy Love, Glasgow new-New Waver LUCIA, North African folk from Gnawa Transfusion, with more names to be announced in the next month.
Performance
Hannah Lavery, recipient of the Tom McGrath Playwriting Grant and the Workers’ Theatre Megaphone residency, will be performing her solo show The Drift, exploring migrant and mixed race identities in Scotland.
World Slam Champion Harry Baker will be leading slam poetry workshops and performing on the main stage.
Surge street theatre performers will be roaming the site, including a drag king send-up of the Gallagher brothers and a puppet show based on Aztec fairytales.
More big names to be announced in April.
Ideas
Professor John Curtice will be examining about how Scotland votes in a discussion session. With Labour on the rise and Brexit on the cards, what do future elections hold for Scotland's politics and identity?
Other groups and individuals leading talks and discussions include musician, political activist and former member of Faithless Dave Randall, expert on colonialism Professor Charles Forsdick, Hearts and Minds Clown Doctors, and UNESCO Chair Professor Alison Phipps, with more names to be announced in the next month.
Notes for editors
Solas Festival is Scotland’s midsummer festival, which has been running since 2009. The all-age, weekend-long celebration of music, arts and ideas is designed to entertain, inspire and challenge. While running the stages, bands and performance of a traditional music festival, the programme makes space for challenging debate with activists, writers and thinkers from across the political, cultural and religious spectrum. The festival offers a broad, inclusive, creative and entertaining programme for festival-goers of all ages in a safe environment; everyone is welcome.
Solas Festival runs from Friday 22 – Sunday 24 June 2018. Tickets are on sale now: weekend including camping £100/£58 conc/£32 under 18s. Children aged under 12 go free. More information is available at www.solasfestival.co.uk.