Back in 1997 David Francis and the Edinburgh Folk Festival scheduled the very first Flowers of Edinburgh Concert. The musicians all gathered at Teviot House (the home of the Folk Festival) and to perform in different groups from their normal groups. I (Simon Thoumire) performed with Jim Sutherland (a jig and a reel a I think!) – one of my musical heroes as I grew up listening to folk music. There were lots of fab performances. Two of my favourites were
- Speccy – Iain MacLeod (Shooglenifty), Simon Bradley and Jim Sutherland – they played an amazing set of tunes
- Angus Grant Jnr, Eilidh Shaw, Simon Bradley and Russell Hunter playing an amazing set of fiddle tunes
The concert ran again in 1998 and was held in The Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh.
In 2012 musician Simon Bradley said to us that it was 15 years since the first Flowers of Edinburgh and we should do another concert. I spoke to Dave Francis about it and he thought it was a great idea. We started asking around who would like to perform and we ended up with this great lineup.
- Karine Polwart
- Corrina Hewat (harp)
- Mairi Campbell
- Clare McLaughlin, Marianne Campbell and John Morran (of Deaf Shepherd)
- Sarah Hoy (fiddle)
- Hamish and Fin Moore with Gary West (pipes)
- Bella Hardy
- Simon Thoumire and Dave Milligan
- Rachel Newton (harp and Gaelic song)
- Brian and Siobhan Miller (Scots song)
- Kathryn Nicol and Tom Oakes (fiddle and guitar)
- Mark Neal and Eilidh Steel (guitar and fiddle).
We also decided after all the terrible losses of 2012 (and plenty of other years) we decided to give the profits to MacMillan Cancer Relief.
Read about the previous Flowers of Edinburgh concerts.
Flowers of Scotland 2015 – 9th May – Pleasance Theatre
Flowers of Edinburgh 2014 – 3rd May – Teviot House
Flowers of Edinburgh 2013 – 27th April – Teviot House