HebCelt line-up

Acclaimed new and up and coming acts will join established festival favourites as the main arena line-up for this year’s HebCelt is finalised.

Six performers have already been announced, including headliners KT Tunstall, The Shires and Tide Lines.

The event mixes well-known names from traditional and Celtic music with rising stars making their festival debuts.

They include Irish duo Hudson Taylor, renowned Scottish singer songwriter Kris Drever and widely-hailed newcomers Ferris & Sylvester, from London.

Other acts announced today are JigJam, an Irish multi-award-winning quartet who blend traditional Irish music with Bluegrass and Americana in a genre known as I-Grass.

Eabhal, from South Uist, were named Hands Up For Trad, Battle of the Folk Bands 2018 winners and nominated for Up and Coming Artist of the Year at the 2018 Scots Trad Music Awards.

Lewis band Face The West, who are no strangers to HebCelt audiences, are recording a new album after a five-year hiatus. Formed in 1998, they were nominated for live act of the year at the 2009 Scottish Trad Awards and have performed as far from home as Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Sian comprise three of Scotland’s finest Gaelic singers who most recently featured on Niteworks’ single ‘Air Fàir an Là’, released in July 2018.

Featuring three of the brightest young musical talents, Josie Duncan and The Dusk feature Josie, from Lewis, with Innes White and Megan Macdonald, who intertwine three-part harmony with delicately crafted instrumentals.

Donald and Peigi are a brother and sister songwriting duo from the Black Isle and part of a well-known Gaelic musical family. Peigi voiced the part of Young Merida in the Disney/Pixar film ‘Brave’ when only nine years old while Donald is studying music and Gaelic in Edinburgh.

Upcoming Scottish singer-songwriter Finn Paul blends 60s folk-revival guitar playing with a modern, soulful voice.

HebCelt director Caroline Maclennan said: “We are very excited by the acts we are announcing today. They all bring something different to an outstanding and varied main arena line-up.

“As in previous years, our audience will enjoy some of the best traditional musicians and also some who are on the brink of stardom.”

The HebCelt main arena line-up now looks like:

Thursday - Tide Lines, Mànran, Kim Carnie, Beinn Lee.

Friday - KT Tunstall, Newton Faulkner, Fara, Breabach, JigJam, Kris Drever Trio, Ferris & Slyvester, Benedict Morris Trio, Roseanne Reid, Josie Duncan & The Dusk, The Youth And Young, and Finn Paul

Saturday - The Shires, Elephant Sessions, Hudson Taylor, Talisk, Eabhal, Face the West, Sian, Jake Morrell, Awkward Family Portraits, Keir Gibson, and Donald & Peigi Barker.

HebCelt completes main arena line-up

14 March 2019

Sian is performing at the festival