The National Folk Festival, Scotland. Common Ground Scotland
a review in The Living Tradition magazine

A Sunday evening of soft rain in Ayrshire, night folding in - and the rooms in 18th century Oswald Hall, Auchincruive, rang with sound as Scotland's National Folk Festival drew to a close. It was standing room only as voices were raised, music flowed and the exquisite Robert Adam designed rooms filled with a people's celebration of traditions and shared humanity. It's unlikely that the silk covered walls and ornate plaster ceilings have ever before reverberated to such a volume of Scottish traditional, old-time, bluegrass, and massed fiddles and session singing.

The weekend Festival climaxed Common Ground Scotland, a week of music and singing sessions, concerts, classes, dialogue, ceilidhs, spoken word, dance, instrument making, gospel singing, children's festival and visits to famous and intriguing historical sites. As well as performances and activities on site at Auchincruive, tutors and musicians visited Dean Castle and Culzean Castle where they gave something back with impromptu public performances. A gospel choir performance in the Round Drawing Room of Culzean Castle saw all and sundry joining in a moving session of song. Concerts held at the Magnum, Civic and Palace Theatres in the nearby towns of Ayr, Irvine and Kilmarnock drew good crowds who joined in enthusiastically.

Scotland's newest folk event struck a chord with tutors, students and Festival go-ers alike, with its mix of listening, learning and participating with music and crafts from Scotland, England, America, Australia and other countries. The sense of community and sharing across cultures and across oceans was something that many found particularly moving.

The ability to attend as a family was crucial to the events success and to the special atmosphere that was generated throughout the week. The options for various members of one family to take part in a diverse range of activities such as fishing, watercolour painting, instrument construction and singing workshops; them to come together for meals and to enjoy evening concerts, was unique in our experience. Jean Redpath, who performed at one of the Civic concerts, solo and with the Gospel Choir, commented later; "It takes a lot of courage to try for a combination like this. I had a great time - and if the performers are enjoying themselves it's a good sign!"

One local commented; "Look at me - a macho Scotsman - that gospel singing had me greetin' like a bairn." Emily Smith, winner of the 2002 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award said that it was definitely a valuable training ground for young musicians. "I've absolutely loved it and I'm really glad I came!" Joe Rae, story teller and singer, remarked; "It's been a real experience for me - I'm a quiet chap who doesn't like talking to strangers but when you're mixing with folk, in the sessions and over meals - I haven't stopped talking all week - I've been talking for Scotland!"

"This is inspiring, to see the concepts translate across the pond, an inter-racial, interethnic gathering of people playing music and talking together - it gives me hope."

Mancunian singer, John Routledge felt that the atmosphere was a special ingredient in the Festival's success. "Atmosphere is the hardest element to create. In this super location it was so uplifting that everyone was inspired to do their absolute best." Ira Zepp, co-founder of Common Ground on the Hill, USA, said that he was moved by the warmth and hospitality. "This is inspiring, to see the concepts translate across the pond, an inter-racial, interethnic gathering of people playing music and talking together - it gives me hope."

For Festival Director, Pete Heywood (editor of Living Tradition magazine), the event was a demanding but rewarding experience. "We couldn't have had a better first year," he said. "Almost everything we planned for happened and in the course of the week many wonderful, unplanned things developed, things we could hardly have dreamt of. "The real bonus of the week was the talent that emerged from within our ranks and the growth of real enthusiasm to carry the event forward for future years. Many people experienced what we had experienced when we visited Common Ground in America, the sense that this is a really significant week in their lives. The Common Ground twinning process has worked and Scottish performers will now be carrying the vision forward to develop our own uniquely Scottish Common Ground - a traditional Scottish event with a global embrace."

Creating a festival that becomes a showcase of traditional culture is a big undertaking. When that festival is designed to bring in strands of other cultures, workshops, concerts, lectures - and to provide special elements of all these for children, the enterprise becomes one that would have many stout hearts blanching, going back to the drawing board or putting the concept on the back burner. The inaugural National Folk Festival, Scotland, demonstrated that the format, while initially unwieldy, does work.

The publicity brochure for the event promised much. It made the point that traditional music is 'music of the people' - yet it has become somewhat divorced from everyday life in the last half century or so. By linking crafts, the visual arts, cultural visits to places of historic interest, and dialogue using the 'social glue' of music, song, story and dance, the Common Ground and The National Festival sought to create experiences that were not only greater in number, but deeper in substance. Judging by the comments of the participants, many people were deeply touched at various points during the week. The rewards of a campus based event, where participants are playing, eating and boarding together makes for a sense of global family that long outlasts the actual festival.

The concerts held in nearby towns, whilst being a strategic and organisational challenge, were highly successful and proved to be an effective way of taking the Festival off campus to a wider audience. The visits to local Castles were a delight; the opportunities for visiting musicians to perform al fresco for other delighted and surprised visitors, and to steep themselves in some of the history of Scotland was an exciting addition to the more usual festival programming. A stroke of genius.

It is perhaps too early make too many judgements about what happened during the week. Initial impressions suggest that huge steps were made towards the creation of Common Ground Scotland and some smaller steps towards the proper establishment of the National Folk Festival, Scotland. The organisers had other potential relationships in their sights including incorporating some of the experiences of the Pinewoods folk music week in the USA. Jerry Epstein took part in the week in the hope that it might be a step towards his vision of a 'Pinewoods East'. Time will reveal what progress was made towards that idea, the organisers certainly had the feeling that rooting Common Ground Scotland into a firm bed of musical traditions was the right thing to do.

The other relationship that was being nurtured during this first year was with The National Folk Festival in Australia. During the Saturday evening concert Pete Heywood, the Festival Director, was presented with a hand crafted didgeridoo, specially commissioned by the National Folk Festival in Australia as a message of goodwill. The National in Australia sent more than their good wishes, they were represented by their Chairman Keith McKenry who took part both as an artist and as an observer and advisor. The National Festival in Australia is a large event. Keith saw the Oswald Hall venue as delightful but restrictive. While the size restrictions the venue imposes may not be a difficulty for the Common Ground format, he saw them as a major limiting factor for a folk festival. "In comparison with the National in Canberra, if the Festival is to remain at this venue it will of necessity be a tiny event, and as such may have difficulty gaining credibility as a 'National' festival." By erecting concert-size marquees and by utilizing other venues at the College, he thought it would be possible to overcome the strait-jacket imposed by the size of Oswald Hall.

The festival organizers tended towards the view that small was beautiful and sought to use concert venues in surrounding towns as one means of increasing festival capacity, and to take the music out to the people, very much the ethos of The Shetland and Orkney festivals. Keith made the point that the sequential juxtaposition of the Common Ground with the National Folk Festival potentially created difficulties of balance and differentiation. "These difficulties were evident in this inaugural year in several ways, but with care need not be repeated.

In regard to balance, the happy circumstance of having a large contingent of performers coming across from the USA certainly added quality and depth to the two events, but had the effect of skewing markedly the performance balance. While such a skewing might not be a major problem in regard to a 'Common Ground' concept it certainly gave the weekend Festival as much an American as a Scottish flavour, a situation which sits awkwardly with the concept of the event as Scotland's National Folk Festival." Clearly some strategic decisions will need to be made and the organizers will need to consider whether Common Ground and The National Folk Festival should be separated and run at different times and, possibly, in different venues.

Despite the various teething problems experienced in this inaugural year, Keith found the two events to be highly enjoyable. "They clearly have potential to succeed on an on-going basis. I consider the Common Ground concept the easiest to transpose to Scotland, both in terms of the use of the existing venue and the need to establish the event in a highly competitive festival calendar. To establish the event as Scotland's accepted National Folk Festival is a task of formidable proportions. It will not be achieved without engaging folkies across the country in dialogue, and achieving among them a shared sense of the event's ownership."

The festival's aim of having a strong focus on Scotland's core traditions within The National Folk Festival, Scotland, was clearly stated in their brochure. "We will seek to present the tradition bearers of our culture in a setting that will be inspirational and encourage participation and the passing on of traditional skills." The willingness of top line performers to become involved - performers that include Jean Redpath, The McCalmans, Jock Tamsons Bairns, Blazin' Fiddles - is an indication of the professional support that exists for this new fledgling in Scotland's cultural nest.

For all the expected and unexpected hiccups in its first flight, next year shows every probability of fulfilling its promise. There is certainly enough enthusiasm, expertise, talent and goodwill to drive it forward. Bless the festival and all who sail in her.

Jan Nary

Photographs from Summer 2002