Festival Info

What are the important dates?

The essential dates for the 42nd Festival in 2024.

1st February - Early membership online sales open.
29th February - Early membership online sales close.
18th March (6pm) - Ticket booking open to early members only.
25th March (6pm) - Ticket booking open to all and memberships back on sale
30th April - All online ticket & membership sales will end at 6pm to enable the committee to process all transactions before moving from the Festival Office to Islesburgh (Festival Club) for the duration of the Festival. This is the final day you can buy a membership.
1st May - it will be possible to COLLECT tickets and your membership wristband between 5pm and 8pm at Islesburgh Community Centre (TBC).
2nd May - 11am Festival Shop re-opens at Islesburgh Community Centre for last minute Ticket Sales and ticket collection. Memberships will not be on sale over the weekend so if you're looking for last minute ticket purchases, only non members price tickets will be available (unless you've purchased membership at an earlier date in which case, members prices will apply)

Please note that all membership and ticket sales are online and we do not accept bookings over the phone or via email. Our shop will be open on some of these dates above to offer assistance however.

We aim to release the concert details of who is playing where by early March 2024.

For full details, and for instructions how to purchase, please visit the membership and tickets pages (these pages will be updated to reflect key changes for 2024, when we have that information available)

Youth Programming and Community Projects

In addition to organising the ticketed concerts, SFFS continue to aspire to organise extra community events, many of them targeted at younger members of the Shetland populace. These include the Playgroup concert, the Additional Support Needs concert, the free Youth concert and selected school visits. We’re also keen on developing educational opportunities. In previous years this has included the “S.H.O.W” project, which showcased the talents of students and tutors from Shetland, Highland, Orkney and the Western Isles in May 2007. The 29th Festival witnessed the exciting and innovative Trans-Nordic educational project, “Nordic Tone” whereas the 2012 Festival included a collaborative project between 4 members of Treacherous Orchestra and 5 music students who formed “The Trad Seeds” in the week running up to the Festival. In 2018, young people from the USA and Shetland collaborated through the Festival hosting a visit form the Young Tradition Vermot Touring Group. Projects like these are extremely valuable for the ongoing development of our prestigious event.

Merchandise

Festival merchandise will be on sale during the Festival at the Club.

Artiste's merchandise will only be sold at the venues that they are performing at.

Raffle Contributors for 2024

The Festival relies on fundraising over the weekend to help meet the costs of staging the event (including freezing ticket prices to make it as affordable as possible to those struggling with the cost of living crises). We are extremely grateful for any raffle donations that businesses may be able to put forward and if concert goers are able to participate by purchasing raffle tickets during the concerts!

If you are able to donate a prize, please send an email for the attention of Lisa Johnson to [email protected].

2024 Raffle contributers include (TBC for 2024)

(2023) Northlink Ferries, GR Direct(George Robertson Ltd), Shetland Times Bookshop, High Level Music, The Dowry, Hays Dock, Jamieson and Smith Knitwear and ESPL Regulatory Consulting Ltd.