The Johnsmas Foy Shetland's summer festival

One of the undoubted highlights of this years Johnsmas Foy event programme will be the Walhalla Vikings - a historical re-enactment group who hail all the way from Poland.

The group will b...

This years Johnmas Foy begins on the evening of 18th June with an opening ceremony in the Shetland Museum and Archive at Hay's Dock, followed by the official opening of the dramatic 'Sails in St Magnus' exhibition in the same venue.

Shetland Islands Council Convenor Sandy Cluness will formally open the Foy, while the General Manager of Shetland Amenity Trust, Jimmy Moncri...

This year’s annual ‘Shetland Flag Day’ will be held on Sunday 21 June during the Johnsmas Foy. The Foy itself runs from Thursday 18 June to Sunday 28 June, and this year focuses on Shetland’s Viking Heritage as its central theme.

In recognition of Shetland Flag Day everyone will once again be encouraged to fly our flag across the county from as m...

An exciting line-up of local and international events is in place for the 2008 Johnsmas Foy. This year’s Foy will celebrate Shetland’s historic connection with the ports of the Hanseatic League, a partnership that dominated trade in the islands for more than 300 years. Appropriately, musicians and poets from the Bremen area will be among those heading towards the isles for the Foy...

With summer approaching, preparations are now in hand for this year’s Johnsmas Foy, an annual celebration of Shetland’s culture, heritage and natural history, which runs from Thursday 19 June to Sunday 29 June. This year, the midsummer festival takes its inspiration from Shetland’s historical connection with the Hanseatic League, which endured for around three centuries from ...

This year’s Johnsmas Foy concluded at the weekend with a flurry of activity which saw nostalgia and new initiatives come together to ensure that Shetland’s summer festival left a lasting impression on all those who took part in celebrating midsummer and this year’s theme, the islands’ fishing heritage.

Over the last four days, Lerwick Harbour has been a te...

This year’s Johnsmas Foy sets off at a fast tempo with two unique events being staged: the Skeld Festival of the Sea and the first visit to Shetland from a professional orchestra for 15 years. Both are prominent events that set a standard of excellence for this year’s action-packed festival programme.

The Skeld Festival of the Sea (15 to 17 June) will celebrate the a...

The Johnsmas Foy organising committee has revealed a full and varied programme to celebrate this year’s event with activities as wide ranging as historic films and presentations, sailing trips and ocean races, mini foys and barbecues to storytelling sessions of sea monsters and mermaids and the first visit to Shetland by a major orchestra for 15 years.

From 15 to 24 June e...

This year’s Johnsmas Foy will be held from 15 to 24 June and will celebrate Shetland’s fishing heritage through a range of interesting events taking place throughout Shetland.

Kick-starting the festivities, the Skeld Festival of the Sea on Shetland’s west mainland will celebrate the area’s historical links with Faroe and Scandinavia. Skeld waterfront was ...

This year’s Johnsmas Foy gets off to a flying start with two spectacular visual arts events, each with a distinct nautical feel to complement the festival’s overarching theme – a celebration of sail.

On 16 June, ‘Nort Atlantik Drift’ – lirik taels o a lyf bie da oshin (North Atlantic Drift – lyric tales of a life by the ocean) is a poetry...

As Shetland gains a reputation as a ‘cool’ place to be, organisers of Shetland’s summer festival ‘Johnsmas Foy’ are set to raise the temperature in the islands by a few degrees as they host two major yacht races and get set to party with a full programme of maritime, music and cultural events from 16 to 26 June.

The theme for the festival is ‘a...

Last year, Shetland played host to the first Johnsmas Foy – a festival of the sea held at midsummer – and its success spurred the organisers to establish the foy as a major annual event in the islands. This year’s Johnsmas Foy will be held from 16 to 26 June and the theme – “a celebration of sail” – has been specially chosen as the festival coincides w...