At the humble age of 9, I didn’t once bat an eyelid at the thought of taking to the stage in Banchory Town Hall to play two (relatively simple) tunes in the ’12 and Under’ section at the Banchory Accordion and Fiddle Festival. I did this year in and year out, gradually venturing to more festivals and competitions as the years went on. However, this also became less like water off a duck’s back, as they say. With more travelling up and down the country, more practising and more successes, came more prestigious festivals. Naturally, these bigger competitions brought more and more nerves and it got to the point that I was no longer enjoying taking part. This is when I decided to pack in the competitions and festivals, solo categories at least.
Once I noticed that the nerves were getting worse, I began to overthink and overcomplicate the situation. Keith Festival 2018 was when I knew it was time to stop.