Thumbs up for Flavour of Shetland festival despite the cold and windy weather

Despite the less than summery weather this year, the Flavour of Shetland event in Lerwick was a great success with visitors flocking to Victoria Pier all weekend.

With some of Shetland’s best music, food and crafts on offer the event was a hive of activity from Thursday afternoon.

Weather wise, the cloud and wind made for a marked difference to last year’s almost tropical conditions, but there was plenty of entertainment, food and drink to keep the crowds happy.

Food stalls ran all weekend, keeping visitors well fed with tasty Shetland lamb and beefburgers from local butchers JK Mainland to try, or delicious seafood paella or scallops served up by chef Glyn Wright. His idea to sell waffles with hot fudge sauce was also very popular given the cold weather.

There were also live cookery demonstrations, with Margaret Stuart showing how traditional Shetland bannocks are made.

Crafts galore were provided  Shetland’s top designers and artists, with knitwear and textiles from the likes of Nielanell, Emma Blain and Andrea Williamson, and photography from Austin Taylor and Phatsheep’s Mark Sinclair.

In the tent, a huge variety of bands played over the weekend, including Erin Sandison, Kollifirbolli, Maggie Adamson and Brian Nicholson, Fullsceilidh Spelemannslag, the Whiskeyjaks, North Country Fair and Aesttawast. They were all introduced by Davie Gardner, who also did a great job of keeping those not at the pier up to date with the goings on via social networking site Facebook.

For the children, there was a games corner, face painting, a silent disco and capers from the Children’s Street Theatre.

SIC marketing officer Kevin Moreland described the weekend as a “great success”.

He said: “It was cold, it was breezy but we’re very happy with the turnout. The weather did have a bearing on it; compared to last year there was around a third less people but there was still 20,000 visitors, so it was still a great success.

“The retailers were also very happy, the textiles in particular did excellently – I think they sold out of gloves! That was one bonus of the weather, when it’s 30 degrees you’re not thinking I need a woolly jumper. But it was good – people were getting some food, getting a beer and listening to the music.”