Tim Edey
Robyn Stapleton
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh
& Mick O’Brien
Maggie MacInnes
Janice Burns & Jon Doran
Len Graham
A Wheen o Wimmin
Tim Liebert &
Christina Lutter
Billy Kay
Seilach Fire Show
Girvan
Community Choir
Alan Reid
Morgan’s Men
The Barrstools
Christine Kydd
Ollie Rigg & Wattie Lees
The Merlin Boys
Pauline Cordiner
The Roving Pedlars
whether it’s your first or 51st time…
…come awa in. You’re in for a treat!
Tim Edey
Irrepresible multi-instrumentalist Tim Edey is widely regarded as one of folk’s finest. Equally at home on guitar, melodeon, his playing combines dazzling technical skill with incredible musical sensitivity. A BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winner, Tim has toured and recorded with many of the biggest names in traditional music.
We’re over the moon to welcome Tim to the Catholic Hall on Saturday night for what promises to be an unforgettable show!
Tim Edey
Maggie MacInnes
Acclaimed Gaelic singer and harp player Maggie MacInnes is an old friend of Girvan Festival having performed with us many times in the past. Coming from a long line of Barra singers, Maggie was herself born in Glasgow and now lives just up the road from Girvan in South Ayrshire!
We’re delighted that Maggie will be sharing with us songs collected from her mother – the great Barra tradition bearer, Flora MacNeil (1928–2015) – by Australian folklorist Dr James Kalokerinos. Maggie will be joined by a 6-piece band including her son Calum and daughter-in-law Robyn!
Maggie MacInnes
Alan Reid & Christine Kydd
Alan Reid joined Scottish folk giants the Battlefield Band in 1969 touring worldwide and recording almost 30 albums with the group before finally retiring from the band in 2010. Since then he has performed widely as a solo act and in various musical partnerships including with fine Scots singer, renowned tradition bearer and friend of Girvan Festival Christine Kydd.
We’re delighted to welcome Alan to the 51st Girvan Festival to keep us entertained over the weekend and we might even get a song or two from Christine as well!
Alan Reid
Alan Reid & Christine Kydd
Robyn Stapleton
Multi award-winning singer, Robyn Stapleton, joins us for a third time at Girvan Festival to entertain us with Ayrshire songs that featured in the childhood of her friend and collaborator Billy Kay.
Robyn Stapleton
Billy Kay
Few have done more for Scots language than award-winning writer & broadcaster, Billy Kay.
We’re delighted to welcome Billy over the border from Kyle to Carrick to read from his memoir Born in Kyle: A Love Letter tae an Ayrshire Childhood accompanied by old friend of the Festival Robyn Stapleton.
Billy Kay
Pauline Cordiner
Pauline is a storyteller from the fishing and farming traditions of the North East of Scotland and enjoys telling a variety of traditional Scottish tales, fairy tales, folk tales creation myths and the occasional home-grown tale of her own.
Pauline Cordiner
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh & Mick O’Brien
Mick & Caoimhín’s two records of uilleann pipes and fiddle, Kitty Lie Over and Deadly Buzz are hugely influential touchstones of the tradition for musicians the world over.
We’re delighted to welcome these two masters of Irish music off the ferry for their first trip to Girvan. Mick & Caoimhín will play a session in town on Saturday evening, give workshops on Sunday afternoon & close the Farewell Concert on Sunday night. Infectious, pure drop trad – definitely not to be missed!
Caoimhín & Mick appear at Girvan thanks to generous support from Culture Ireland.
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh
A Wheen o Wimmin
Five celebrated Scots singers who’ve shared many a stage – many of them at previous Girvan Festivals!
Perthshire’s Aileen Carr, Amy Lord from Dunblane, Lanarkshire-born Elspeth Cowie, and Barbara Dymock and Chris Miles both originally from Fife, all share a love of traditional song, and over the years they have collectively received innumerable plaudits for singing it. They come together as a group in 2025 and we can’t wait to welcome them to Girvan to share with us the jewels of the Scots song tradition.
Four of the Five Wimmin were part of the Scots Womxn: Generations o Change concert at Celtic Connections in 2025 from which the following clip is taken 👇🏻
Len Graham
County Antrim born, Len Graham is one of the finest of the Ulster singers and was the first person in the Folk Revival to make a commercial recording of Robert Burns’s Song Composed in August or Now Westlin Winds. Alongside Burns, Len’s fine interpretations of the song of his native Ulster have brought him many awards and admirers, including in 2011 the Gradam na mBard CCÉ at the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann.
We’re very happy to welcome Len back to Girvan, to entertain us over the weekend.Len appears at Girvan thanks to generous support from Culture Ireland.
Len Graham
Seilach Fire Show
On Sunday night after the Farewell Concert there’ll be a bagpipe parade from the Catholic Hall to Girvan’s Shalloch shore and the site of our spectacular closing fire show.
As usual, the show will be a collaboration between renowned local artist & much-in-demand willow weaver David Powell, CRAG Community Arts and local school children. And we’ll have some music from friends of the Festival.
David T Powell Arts
Ollie Rigg & Wattie Lees with Claire Mann
Two of the South West’s top pipers, Wattie from Stranraer & Ollie from Moniaive, are both fine players of the Highland & Scottish smallpipes but you’d spot them more often these days around the Festivals playing finely-wrought jigs & reels on the uilleann pipes or low whistles. Girvan-goers of long-standing may also remember Wattie’s last appearance on the Girvan stage with the band Quadrille – we’ll not tell you which year that was!
We’re delighted that Ollie & Wattie will be joined on Friday night by one of our favourite fiddle players & another amazing local(ish) musician, Claire Mann.
Underarmed by Ollie Rigg & Wattie Lees
Morgan’s Men
Morgan’s Men are Alan Jones, Steven Clark & Graham Carter, all three weel-kent faces to Girvan audiences! They first came together as a band during a session at the 50th Girvan Festival last year! They each bring a wealth of experience to the new group – Alan is a multi-instrumentalist, a member of Haggerdash & a presenter for Celtic Music Radio, Steven a renowned songwriter & performer and Graham, a popular solo act in the Folk Clubs of England & Scotland. The group specialise in songs of the sea – be prepared to sing!
Steven Clark
Alan Jones
Graeme Carter
The Barrstools
Carrick’s finest, the 6 piece Barrstools play traditional music, folk classics and Americana on box, guitar, banjo, upright bass, pipes, whistles, & percussion. They’ll start us off in fine fashion with a rousing set in the Westcliffe on Friday evening.
The Barrstools
Janice Burns & Jon Doran
Janice & Jon are an award-winning Anglo-Scottish duo who deliver traditional song with peerless vocal harmonies and sensitive accompaniment on mandolin, bouzouki and guitar. We’re delighted to welcome them to Girvan for the first time where they’ll give us a concert set on Saturday night.
Janice Burns & Jon Doran
Tim Liebert & Christina Lutter
We’re delighted to welcome to Girvan two fine musicians from the Thuringia, Vogtland and Mittelsachsen regions of Saxony. Christina & Tim play and sing German, Scandinavian and Irish traditional music on fiddle and the Thuringian Waldzither, a cittern-family instrument unique to Thuringia and Vogtland.
Christina & Tim come to us from Kulturwerkstätten JohannesHof e.V., an artist-led cultural centre based in the village of Bockendorf. JohannesHof has recently partnered with Girvan Festival through the Cultural Bridge programme on a project exploring the sustainability of participatory traditional arts practice in rural communities.
The collaboration brings together artists and organisers from Germany and Scotland to exchange ideas and best practice, learn from one another, and see what new possibilities emerge — ideally with plenty of music and good company along the way!
Christina & Tim appear at Girvan thanks to generous support from Cultural Bridge, which celebrates bilateral artistic partnerships between the UK and Germany through the collaboration between British Council, Creative Scotland, Fonds Soziokultur and the Goethe-Institut London.
Tim Liebert
Girvan Community — The Strandline Singers
Girvan Community Choir was formed in 2022 by CRAG Community Arts to bring people together through shared singing. The choir – you’ll sometimes hear them called The Strandline Singers – meets on Tuesday evenings in the Wee School Arts Space in Girvan and is led by musical director Andrew Thom.
The choir has a particular interest in folk song, and in 2023, members contributed to the Festival’s The Ballads and Songs of Carrick project, singing back to life a number of old, local songs with the help of Robyn and Dr Jo Miller. Several of these rediscovered pieces have since become firm favourites within the choir’s repertoire.
Girvan Community Choir
The Roving Pedlars
Moniaive’s principal ceilidh crew and firmest of friends to Girvan Festival, The Roving Pedlars, join us to once again lead sessions and fun over the Festival weekend.
The Roving Pedlars