HebCelt 2025: what we played and who we met

Eight of us made the trip to Stornoway for HebCelt this year — two ferries, one van, and a fiddle case that spent the crossing wedged under a seat because nobody would risk the hold.

The festival itself was its usual generous self. We had a slot in the acoustic tent on the Friday afternoon and played a mostly-Shetland set: Da Full Rigged Ship into Willafjord, a slow air, then Spootiskerry to finish because it never fails. A crowd that had mostly wandered in out of the rain stayed put, which on a festival afternoon is the sincerest compliment there is.

The real music, as ever, happened off the main stages. The sessions in the Criterion ran long both nights — Lewis players, a couple of Irish flutes, a piper who could make a whistle do things whistles shouldn't do. There is a particular pleasure in dropping a Shetland reel into a Hebridean session and watching ears prick up at the ringing strings. We swapped tunes for tunes: we came home with two Gaelic puirt and a strathspey none of us can pronounce, and left Da Slockit Light behind us in fair exchange.

Highlights beyond the tent: Julie Fowlis on the main stage on Saturday, a chip van of genuinely historic quality, and the Sunday-morning ferry queue session that started as three of us and ended as eleven.

We're already talking about next year. If you've never taken your fiddle off the isles, a festival trip is the best possible reason to start — and there's always room in the van.