Mela Festival 2024

Photographing Mela Festival at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park.

The Glasgow Mela is Scotland's biggest free multicultural festival of music, dance, and arts held annually at Kelvingrove Park. This year it took place on Sunday, June 23rd, it attracted some 40,000 people and I was there to capture the event for Glasgow Life. Honestly, this was such a joy to photograph and I hope the images below convey that.

GEAR:
Nikon Z8
Nikkor Z 70-200 f2.8
Nikkor Z 14-24mm f2.8
Nikkor Z 85mm f1.2
Nikkor Z 35mm f1.8
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filters

Celtic Connections 2024

Documenting the 2024 Celtic Connections Festival

Well, this January flew by for a change, thanks to Celtic Connections, the world-renowned folk, roots and world music festival. Glasgow Life approached me late last year asking if I’d be interested in documenting the 2024 outing of the annual winter event and I was, like, hmm, I need to think about it. I’m kidding, obviously, I jumped at the opportunity!

This year’s festival run from January 18th to February 4th, with over 300 events involving 1,200 artists across 25 of the city’s venues. I’m not superhuman and was able to photograph only a portion of that, but hopefully what you see below is a good representation of the 2024 Celtic Connections. I had a blast and am looking forward to the 2025 edition if they have me back. Enjoy a selection of my favourite shots from the past 3 weeks:

Dreamers' Circus, The Royal Concert Hall

Talisk, Barrowland Ballroom

Saint Luke's

Simon Neil (Biffy Clyro), The Royal Concert Hall

Heidi Talbot, The Old Fruitmarket

Behind The Scenes

Chris Thile, The Royal Concert Hall

Hamish Hawk, The Royal Concert Hall

The Royal Concert Hall

Allison Russell, Òran Mór

Lankum, The Barrowland Ballroom

Behind The Scenes

Roddy Hart, The Royal Concert Hall

Skerryvore, The Royal Concert Hall

Fatoumata Diawara, The Old Fruitmarket

SWG3

Valtos, SWG3

Adwaith, CCA

Rachel Sermanni, The Royal Concert Hall

Justin Currie (Del Amitri), The Royal Concert Hall

Behind The Scenes

Eddi Reader, The Royal Concert Hall

King Creosote, The Old Fruitmarket

The Bothy Band, The Royal Concert Hall

Talisk, The Barrowland Ballroom

Mec Lir, Saint Luke's

Ceilidh, The Old Fruitmarket

Behind The Scenes

Su-a Lee, City Halls

Dougie MacLean, The Royal Concert Hall

Heisk, Tramway

Behind The Scenes

The Royal Concert Hall

Josie Duncan, Tramway

Skipinnish, The Royal Concert Hall

The Royal Concert Hall

GEAR
Nikon D850 x 2
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Nikkor 35mm f1.8
Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filters

FRANCES THORBURN & FRIENDS

Frances Thorburn is a fantastic singer-songwriter and an actress, known to many for her role as Kim Monroe in River City, and a couple of weeks ago she put on a truly splendid evening of music to raise funds for Moe Abutoq, a film director and a friend of Frances who was diagnosed with MS 2 years ago. The illness has been rapidly advancing and its treatment requires travel to Mexico and some £60,000. Frances invited a host of musicians for the night including Martha L. Healy, Kathryn Joseph, Angie Darcy and many more. "Celebration of Songs", as the event was called, took place on February 8th at Saint Luke's and featured material ranging from show tunes to Americana, Broadway to Paula Abdul (yes, really). I was lucky enough to be there and capture the night (see images below). If you didn't manage to attend the fundraiser you can still help Moe by donating to the JustGiving page Frances set up: 

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/frances-thorburnmoeabutoq.

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SOUNDCHECK

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CELEBRATION OF SONGS

Kathryn Joseph

Joyce Falconer

George Drennan & Frances Thorburn

Moe Abutoq

Angie Darcy

Frances Thorburn

Martha L. Healy

Frances Thorburn

Ryan Joseph Burns

Frances Thorburn

David Farrell, Frances Thorburn, Kathryn Joseph & Chris Stout

Ceol's Craic

Established in 2004, Ceòl's Craic is a year-round programme of the best in contemporary Gaelic culture. I've had the pleasure of working with them for a few years now, photographing various events, from plays and book launches to music showcases at CCA. It's fun, sometimes challenging and often educational (who knew there was so much brilliant electronica in Gaelic?). Here's a collection of some of my favourite images for Ceòl's Craic:

The Dolls

The Dolls are Louise McCarthy (Only an Excuse?) and Gayle Telfer Stevens (River City) and I've known them for a few years through my work with Soul Nation Choir (Gayle and Lousie have both sung with this brilliant choir). I'd been hearing (and seeing clips online) of their double act for a while but somehow never got the chance to see it live until I was asked to photograph a couple of their sold-out Dolls Abroad shows at The Mitchell Theatre this September. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen - I was photographing it with tears streaming down my face! After 8 sold-out shows at The Mitchell Theatre, The Dolls are hitting the road next spring to bring Dolls Abroad to venues all over Scotland. Fat chance getting tickets (some dates were sold out within 10 minutes) but it's definitely worth trying cause these two (and the brilliant Alan Orr who also stars in the show) will knock your socks out!