It has been a privilege for me to be a part of the 25th anniversary of the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention (NAFCo) which finishes today in Aberdeen. Musicians, dancers and academics from all over the world have descended on our little city to celebrate, perform and discuss traditional fiddle music and dance.
I signed up as a volunteer for the event and helped to organise the busking trail (also called popup performances) on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I selected the venues, found wet weather contingency options and put together a schedule. I did a lot of running over the past few days from venue to venue to NESCOL to NAFCo HQ and back again. I don’t know how many steps it was but it felt like a marathon and my leg muscles are telling me it was a lot of running.
But it was also fun and I signed up for two of the workshops on step dancing which I enjoyed immensely. The first was with Canadian superstar Mary Frances Leahy who at only 20 is a mesmerising presence on stage whether she’s playing the fiddle, playing the piano or step dancing. She’s a very talented young woman. Here’s a video I took of the workshop where I feel she overestimated our abilities just a little bit. Her luggage got lost in transit so she was without tap shoes for this but as you can see that made little difference. She ended up borrowing mine which was another privilege. Now I can say Mary Frances Leahy danced in my shoes. Hopefully she injected some of her magic into them and I’ll dance better in them from now on.
The second class was with Sophie Stephenson whose step dance style had a more Scottish flavour. Sophie is a brilliant teacher and knows how to introduce movements incrementally so that you suddenly find you’re doing the steps without even realising. She does online classes too if you’re interested!
Our own Elizabeth got to dance for the NAFCo opening concert at the Music Hall along with fellow dancers from the Emma Lowson School of Dance. It was a real honour for her.
The Emma Lowson School of Highland Dance also joined the popup performance trail and danced at the Maritime Museum, Art Gallery, William Wallace Statue and Victorian toilets under Union Street. Here’s a collection of photos from the trail of the many different performers.
The Victorian toilets were a fun venue. It’s a set of men’s urinals from the Victorian era, no longer in use obviously, but preserved because they made urinals from marble back then and that along with the green tiles and mosaic flooring are all still intact and very beautiful. The first two days were mid-week and it was quieter so I stood up on the street to spread the word that the toilets were open – it is a tourist attraction, after all – and there was live music down there: FREE live music. At one point I approached some Japanese tourists and told them about the event, gave them a leaflet, and pointed to the venue. They just smiled at me and ran the other way. In hindsight they may not have understood English very well and simply saw an animated, borderline crazy woman pointing down some stairs into a doorway that had the word, “Gentlemen” above it and clearly looked like the entrance to a dunny. Oh well, their loss. The toilets aren’t open very often so if you get the chance, go inside and have a look. I believe you can do pilates in there on a Saturday morning.
Here I am listening to the last act of the day at the Marischal Atrium.
The atrium was meant to be a wet weather contingency option for Marischal College but the performers wanted to play there for the acoustics and it was good!
This is the Ythan Fiddlers who were excellent.
And SC&T Mixed Instruments who were also terrific.
This next set of performers is a singing group: ACE Voices.
We also used the Trinity Centre for one group as the wind was blowing all their sheet music away and that worked out really well. This is the Aberdeen Strathspey and Reel Society.
This next group had never met each other and got together to perform several sets for the first time. They were musicians from all over the world including a Swedish band called Orust Spelmansgille and for this reason decided to call themselves The North Atlantic Turmoil Collective.
Honestly I could spend all day uploading the very many videos I recorded but I’ll leave it there. My only regret is that I didn’t do more of the workshops but I wouldn’t have had the time, so I’ll just have to wait for the next one though where and when that will be no one seems to know.
There is merchandise available all day today at NESCOL including these legacy t-shirts from previous events that are only £5. I got this cool blue one from NAFCo 2010.
rachel.blog 
Leave a comment