Edinburgh FluteFling 2025

FluteFling is delighted to announce an amazing line-up for the Edinburgh FluteFling 2025. We will be joined by award-winning Hamish Napier, Kirsten Allstaff Scottish-born founder of the Online Academy of Irish Music, and Edinburgh trad Boehm system expert Freya Rae.

Hamish will be headlining a concert on the evening of Friday 4th, there will be the usual carousel of workshops with all three tutors on Saturday 5th and, for the first time, there will be a single Sunday 6th workshop, led by Kirsten.

Edinburgh FluteFling will take place 4-6 April 2025
Heart of Newhaven Community, 4-6 Main Street, Newhaven, Edinburgh EH6 4HY

This page will be updated with more details, so be sure to check back.

Tickets

Tickets are on sale now. The Saturday workshops sold out weeks in advance last year, so make sure you aren’t disappointed.

Friday concert only: £18/ £15:
https://hamishnapierconcert.brownpapertickets.com/

Saturday workshops only: £75/ £50
Friday & Saturday bundle (save 10%): £83.70/ £58.50
https://edinburghflutefling25.brownpapertickets.com/
(Toggle the drop-down date to find the different options for workshops only or the concert-workshops bundle)
Note: The Saturday workshops are strictly limited to 36 people in total.
Update: As of 30 March there are just 2 Saturday workshop spaces remaining.

Sunday workshop only (limited to 20): £24/ £35
https://edinburghfluteflingsunday.brownpapertickets.com/
Update: As of 30 March just 2 Sunday workshop spaces remaining.

Accommodation

We don’t have any deals, but people have found the Premier Inn near the venue to be suitable. There is also a Holiday Inn Express in Leith.

What’s on: Friday concert

Hamish Napier (flutes and whistles) in Concert with Jordan Neill (guitar, pipes)

Exclusive: Edinburgh FluteFling is the only opportunity in the South of Scotland to see Hamish Napier and Jordan Neill on their Speyside Tour 2025.

HAMISH NAPIER is a Scottish folk multi-instrumentalist and composer from Grantown-on-Spey. He is inspired by the heritage and nature of his native landscape of Strathspey.

His album The Woods explores the flora and fauna of Scotland’s native forests. It won Album of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards and is the third album in his Strathspey Pentalogy – an ambitious project to produce 5-albums in celebration of his homeland, following on from the first two in the series, The River (for the river Spey) and The Railway (for the old Speyside railway line).

In this concert Hamish will also share a few of the new pieces from forthcoming album no.4, The Hill. Humorous, engaging and heart-warming, Hamish’s performances often incorporate poems and stories about nature, folklore and communities.

JORDAN NEIL is an acclaimed bagpiper and guitarist from Aviemore, Scotland. Similarly to Hamish he attended Fèis Spè in his youth, and is very much in-demand as a musician in his native Badenoch & Strathspey, and the Inverness area.

Jordan Neil will be performing with Hamish Napier at Edinburgh FluteFling (c) Jordan Neill

Jordan has worked alongside the Cairngorm Ceilidh Band and regularly plays in his folk duo Làirig. He attained a bachelor’s degree in Applied Music at the University of the Highlands & Islands, studying under professional musicians Simon Bradley, Iain MacDonald (Glenuig), Matheu Watson and Anna-Wendy Stevenson. Jordan has a passion for the great outdoors and hillwalking and is a keen amateur landscape photographer.

What’s on: Saturday workshops

This year’s tutors will be Hamish Napier, Kirsten Allstaff and Freya Rae.

Hamish Napier

Hamish Napier will be teaching at Edinburgh FluteFling. (c) Hamish Napier

Hamish Napier is a Scottish folk flautist, pianist, singer, educator and composer inspired by the heritage and nature of his native landscape of Strathspey.

5 years ago, after nearly 2 decades living and working in Glasgow and Boston’s vibrant, multi-genre music scenes, he returned home to his native Strathspey to begin his ‘Strathspey Pentalogy’ – an ambitious 10-year project to produce 5 landscape and heritage inspired albums. The River (‘16) and The Railway (‘18) received 5- stars in national newspapers. The Woods (’20) won ‘Album of the Year’ in the Scots Trad Music Awards, and Hamish contributed significantly to two other recent winners Black Cuillin (‘23) and Sandwood (’18) by Duncan Chisholm, with whom he has a successful long-standing co-writing partnership with.

Hamish has collaborated with leading artists such as Ross Ainslie, Donald Shaw, Julie Fowlis, Blue Rose Code and Martyn Bennett. He has performed several times on national television and radio – and has presented BBC Radio Scotland’s Travelling Folk programme.

He has appeared at festivals, theatres, music camps and universities throughout the UK, Europe and North America. He strives for a balance between tradition and innovation, celebrating and respecting Scotland’s rich musical heritage while transcending boundaries, with jazz, classical and modern music production techniques.

His work is often interdisciplinary: syncing music to landscape films or incorporating poems and stories. Hamish produced a film ‘Strathspey Stories’ with David Francis that premiered at the Scottish International Storytelling Festival. He is the writer and voice of over 10 hours of historical audio stories for smartphone travel apps ‘Highland Discovery’ and ‘Badenoch the Storylands’ for Transport Scotland and Badenoch Heritage.

Over the last 3 years, he has been highly involved in the community arts in Cairngorms National Park, particularly through the Storylands Sessions event series co-created with writer Merryn Glover – a hugely successful performance hub for poetry, stories, music, art and song for all ages. Bandcamp page here

Hamish’s website is here | Bandcamp page here

Kirsten Allstaff

Kirsten Allstaff will be teaching at the Edinburgh FluteFling (c) Kirsten Allstaff

Scottish-born Kirsten Allstaff is one of the founders and directors of The Online Academy of Irish Music. She is an acclaimed flute and tin-whistle player and has played music throughout Ireland, Europe, North America and Asia with various Irish dance shows and groups.

Upon graduating from the University of Glasgow with an M.A.Honours degree in Celtic Civilisations and Scottish History, she went on to study traditional Irish music at Ballyfermot College, Dublin. Shortly after it’s completion she began teaching and lecturing on The Northern Rhythms Program of Music in Falcarragh, Co. Donegal.

In 2002, she graduated with a First-Class Honours Masters Degree in Traditional Irish Music Performance from the University of Limerick (U.L) and subsequently began tutoring flute and whistle at The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. She taught there for 10 years before moving to Co. Clare where she currently resides, playing sessions and teaching online and locally.

Since graduating from U.L, she has toured extensively with various internationally acclaimed bands and dance shows – Gaelforce Dance, Celtic Legends, Rhythm of the Dance and most recently Clare based bands The Fiddle Case and Los Paddys De Las Pampas. Gallowglass is her debut solo album which blends the music of her Scottish and Irish homeland . FOUR / 4, the follow up album, as the name may imply, is dedicated to reels.

Kirsten’s website is here.

Freya Rae

Freya Rae will be teaching flute and whistle at the Aberdeen FluteFling 2024.

FluteFling is delighted to welcome back Freya Rae, who taught with us in Aberdeen in November. In demand as a teacher and performer in Edinburgh, Freya has stepped in for Sharon Newton Creasey, playing Boehm flute, whistle, clarinet, fiddle and more.

Hailing from Jedburgh, Freya plays in various lineups and performed at the Edinburgh FluteFling in 2024 with harpist Siannie Moodie.

Freya’s will also be performing her latest project Divergence at Edinburgh’s Tradfest in May with Siannie Moodie on clarsach and Tim Lane (Hidden Orchestra) on Kit, percussion and tongue drum.

Divergence is so named because the band seeks to employ non-traditional instruments in traditionally-inspired music. These include the silver boehm system flute, the clarinet and tongue drum. Their aim is to encourage inclusivity, progression and acceptance.

The trio take Freya’s own melodies and twist them into sets and riffs, giving them a zest for life that is delightfully infectious.

Freya’s website is here.

George Ormiston

Once again, we welcome back George Ormiston, who will be on hand to discuss his flutes and whistles, repairs and more. George will have a few of his flutes to try out and will be available all day.

George’s website is here.

Weekend programme: Subject to changes

FRIDAY CONCERT

Doors 19.30
Concert 20.00-21.45 approx (including interval)
BYOB (the venue has no licence, but you are free to bring your own drink)

SATURDAY Workshops

0930-1000: Registration, Anchor Hub
1000-1115: Workshop 1
1115-1145 Break (30 mins)
1145-1300 Workshop 2
1300-1400 Lunch (60 mins)
1400-1515 Workshop 3
1515-1545 Break (30 mins)
1545-1700 Talk
1700 End

SUNDAY WORKSHOP

0930-1000: Registration, Anchor Hub
10.00-12.00 Workshop (with a short break)

The workshops are open to Boehm system (metal, classical) musicians and those playing simple system wooden flutes (keyed or unkeyed) alike. This is an opportunity to explore and develop your playing in the context of Scottish traditional music, whichever instrument you play.

Whistlers should be playing whistles or low whistles in D and be beyond the complete beginner stage. There will also be space for Beginner flute players with 1-3 years experience as well as those with more than 3 years experience. These are rough guides only, check out our FAQs or please get in touch if you are not sure.

Topics covered include:

different playing styles
tune types
technique
breathing, phrasing and tone improvement
history

Workshop resources

Some resources have been supplied in advance by the tutors closer to the workshops. Please note that the resources pages are password protected and all ticket holders will have be sent the relevant password by email.

Saturday workshop resources can be accessed here.
Kirsten’s Allstaff’s Sunday workshop resources are here.

Safety

FluteFling takes people’s health and safety seriously. Please refer our our policy and guidance on COVID and air-borne respiratory diseases (PDF). This and further information can be found on our Health and Safety Guidelines page.

If you have any concerns, please get in touch.

Sessions

There are no organised sessions for Friday evening this year. Instead, we have focused on organising the concert.

Saturday evening’s session will not be publicly advertised but workshop ticket holders will be emailed details.

Sunday 12.30-15.45, Campervan Brewery 112 Jane Street, Leith, EH6 5HG.

There are regular sessions across Edinburgh and if you’re itching for tunes after the Friday concert, there are many options to be found.

Dougie Pincock has started compiling a list of common FluteFling session tunes, complete with sheet music and audio. You can access that here.

Venues

The Friday concert and Saturday and Sunday workshops take place at Heart of Newhaven, which is situated close to Newhaven harbour, to the North of the city on the Firth of Forth. Session venues are TBC. Check back for updates.

Bus, tram and rail: There are plenty of good connections around Edinburgh. Waverley station is closest to Newhaven. Lothian Regional Transport have a good bus and tram app and their website has a journey planner. Buses have contactless payment, which is capped at a daily rate. There is a direct tram from Princes Street to Newhaven.

Bike: There are lots of quiet cycle routes around Edinburgh. Use the Edinburgh Cycle Streets web site and app to plan your journey. See the Spokes website for other information on Edinburgh Cycling.

Car: For people travelling by car, Newhaven is well connected. There is mostly free on-street parking, but do check on restrictions and please be considerate to venue neighbours.

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