PROGRAMME 2021

With the sea running through the programme, we look at the progress of tidal power, and plans to row the Northwest Passage; at sea-cliffs and shore life and whale migration in Arctic waters. We hear about ways to tackle climate change, through soil regeneration and alternative power for flights and ferries. We hear how people fought Smallpox and Spanish flu, and about new research into genetics and Covid resistance. There is news of work on gravitational waves, and exploring space, and new ideas on the origins of life and the nature of time. ...

Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters is giving us the opportunity to develop a range of new events, among them an opportunity to experience the sights and sounds of Swona, with its seals and flowers and feral cattle. 360-degree photospheres and the voices of people past and present give a vivid picture of the uninhabited island, lying at the edge of the Pentland Firth’s tidal stream. ...

We have a rich mix of musical strands. There is music inspired by astronomy, with the five bright stars of the constellation Auriga each represented by a separate instrument, and music influenced by Nordic landscape and history in a concert of new work by composers from Ireland, Orkney and Faroe. We will also meet composers whose work is influenced by issues of climate and environment.

You can take a long slow look with Mark Jenkins at Rackwick, “the hidden valley of light” of George Mackay Brown’s poem, with the sounds of voices of the people of Hoy, past and present. You can explore the shore with Raymond Besant, with some previously unseen sequences of life along the Orkney shore. You can wonder with Selena S Kuzman about the sea and its transformations, and our relationship to it. “Our bodies follow the tidal movement of ebb and flow, hope and despair, joy and sorrow – are we carried in a deeper flow?”

Here is an opportunity for outdoor activity during the Festival. Orkney wildlife guide Megan Taylor of Wild Orkney Walks has put together a special programme of walks in varied parts of Orkney, to provide a range of hill views and coastal scenes. “My aim,” she says, “is to take you off the beaten track where you can see some different wildlife and enjoy Orkney scenery. ...

We open with a link between Orkney and Slovenia, and we round off with a ceilidh, and in between there is a range of special events, from late-evening stargazing to a singalong with Mr Boom, and from a service in St Magnus Cathedral to music from Kirkwall City Pipe Band.

Make paper from natural materials. Learn to navigate by the stars. Build a model of a satellite. See bees through a microscope. Find out how to make compost and turn kitchen and garden waste into food for your plants. Come and join in!

See bees through the microscope. Make paper from natural materials - and compost as well. Learn to navigate by the stars as the Greeks and the Norse and the Phoenicians did. Make a model of a little satellite. And don’t forget to sing and dance with Mr Boom!

For one of the lunchtimes, we will be joined by Scotland’s new Astronomer Royal, Prof. Catherine Heymans of the University of Edinburgh, as we hear about the work of the community of North Ronaldsay to attain recognition for their dark island skies. On another lunchtime we’re going to Birsay live for an event commemorating a great Orkney naturalist who lived there in the mid-18th century. The work of Rev. George Low covered Orkney’s history as well as its natural history, and we’ll go over to the garden of the manse that was once his home. Tristan Cameron-Harper will join us on several days to show us scenes from his Orkney travels, including drone footage, and Eric Walker will tell us what to look for in the night sky.

It’s the part of the Festival that you create – comments, questions and general discussion, from 9.30 pm each evening, online via a direct Zoom link; and it’s all free. It’s an opportunity to find out more about the Festival and Orkney itself, from the Festival team and friends. And on the closing evening it’s an opportunity to hear some music as well, from time to time, as the Club looks to move into ceilidh format.

You can see Swona, with its seals and feral cattle, out in the Pentland Firth, in Katy Firth’s exhibition of 360-degree photospheres. Turn them around for complete panoramic views, with recordings and archive photos as well. You can also see the flagstones formed in ancient Lake Orcadie and photographed today by Rebecca Marr, and still carrying the imprints of mudcracks and ripple-marks, 400 million years on.

In 2021 the Festival developed a special additional programme for schools, with events for early years, primary and secondary pupils. Teachers and Practitioners were able to choose from a range of livestream events and pre-recorded sessions, linked to the Curriculum of Excellence, Experiences and Outcomes. We also included some professional learning sessions during the Festival and competitions for different ages.