Bothy ballad kings are coming to Elgin
night of music as scene set for champion of champions competition
Published:
THE country songs of yesteryear will resound through Elgin Town Hall when it plays host to the 27th Champion of Champions Bothy Ballads competition next month.
The event will bring the six winners of local bothy ballad competitions across Scotland together to compete against each other and last year’s winner, Geordie Muirison, for the Champion of Champions title and prestigious Macallan Porridge Bowl.
Elgin Rotary Club raised £4,000 from last year’s event as well as breaking the world record for serving 750 plates of stovies and 750 drams of The Macallan in 17 minutes 22 seconds, beating their own record by 10 minutes.
The original bothy ballads were composed and sung by farm workers decades ago when they lived in the farm bothies, so it has long been a male-dominated art form.
But Margaret Bennett, folklorist and lecturer at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, will strike a blow for girl power when she acts as the competition’s first woman adjudicator in February. As well as the contest itself, further entertainment will be provided by the Elgin Strathspey and Reel Society and audiences will be treated to poems by Pat Fraser and ballads by Sarah Walker.
Tickets, which cost £8.50 for upstairs or £7.50 downstairs, include stovies and a dram and will be available from Elgin Library from Monday.
