This year’s celebration of folk culture in Edinburgh, Edinburgh Tradfest features hundreds of artists and musicians performing over eleven days of traditional live music, song, storytelling, dance, workshops, talks, ceilidhs film and special events. Opening week highlights include six-time Grammy nominee, American multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens, who kicks off the festival with Grammy-winning Italian pianist Francesco Turrisi; the award-winning Documentary film Heading West: A story about a band called Shooglenifty, legendary pipers Rona Lightfoot and Allan Macdonald, Austro-British folk-punk singer-songwriter Alicia Edelweiss, and tenor banjo player Ciaran Ryan and band.