Folk Festival box office open for business

Tickets for the highly anticipated 30th Orkney Folk Festival go on sale today, Saturday.

The general release of festival tickets follows three weeks of advance sales to festival patrons, which has seen a number of events for the landmark festival sell out before the main sales open.

Festival spokesman Craig Corse said: “Ticket sales have been really strong so far, which we’re obviously delighted with.

“We’re not sure whether early interest has been heightened through it being the 30th anniversary, or by the line-up of artists that we have in respect of that, or perhaps through winning the Event of the Year award at the Trad Awards last December — it might be a combination of all of the above, who knows?

“What we do know for sure is that, once again, we’re looking ahead to a very busy festival weekend, with a great number of visitors from around the globe joining us at the end of the month.”

The box office, at the Pier Arts Centre in Stromness, will open at 10.30am today for in-person sales, when the festival’s dedicated booking line will also open, on 851635.

• Meanwhile, entrants to the Open Stage event, to be held on Saturday, June 2, have until tomorrow, Sunday, May 13. Entries have so far been received from Orkney, Scotland, England and Australia; however, there is still time to enter for a chance to perform at the festival.