Haddo Arts Festival 2020

BBC Radio Scotland’s Jamie MacDougall is the virtual host for this year’s Haddo Arts Festival which is moving online in the face of the coronavirus. He came to Haddo late last month to record a special preview for the eight performances which will be presented as Premieres on the Haddo Arts YouTube channel from 3 – 8 October. The preview can be seen here: https://youtu.be/xHKWkxKpADc

Haddo Arts Trustees realised back in April/May that the odds were against being able to stage the annual Haddo Arts Festival in the traditional way, welcoming audiences to the Hall, House and Chapel at Haddo. They took the decision to continue Haddo’s long heritage of bringing the community together to experience and enjoy wonderful musical and spoken word performances by taking the 2020 Haddo Arts Festival online. 

Some performances have been recorded at Haddo, others wherever the performers could get together. Richard Michael’s masterly and entertaining explanation that “It’s All Music Folks” features the Haddo Steinway. Violinist Gina McCormack and pianist Nigel Clayton bring Beethoven and Debussy to us from Mellerstain House, nr. Kelso, whilst young clarinettist Laura Smith and pianist Colin Sinclair play Baermann and Schumann at North East Scotland Music School in Aberdeen. Other treats include Haddo Children’s Theatre specially created digital musical “The Show Must Go Online” and Myrtle Throgmorton’s idiosyncratic tour of Haddo House. The festival closes with the digital performance of Fables and Foibles, this year’s Song for Haddo, bringing together young singers and instrumentalists from Aberdeenshire and Dunbar.

One element of the Festival will be happening at Haddo. The visual art exhibition, Experimental Use of 2m Space, will be available in the South Wing Courtyard and Garden from 3 – 10 October. It will be open from 10.00 am – 7.00 pm on Saturday 3 October, and from 10.00 am – 4.00 pm for the rest of the week.

The programme is here

To view online click our photo below.