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Our MagFest strand sets out to delight and surprise, inspiring new audiences as well as enhancing the Festival experience for regular Festival-goers. Each year MagFest reinvents itself, and this year we transform a disused building in the centre of Kirkwall into a sophisticated venue which plays host to an eclectic programme of music, circus skills and cabaret.

This year's MagFest events, in Jewson's Shed, Junction Road, Kirkwall, are:

Internet bookingAndy Cant!
Friday 18th June, 7.30pm (SOLD OUT)
Saturday 19th June, 10pm*
Andy has been the creator and guiding spirit behind some of Orkney's – and the Festival's – most memorable tunes and performances.  Here at last Andy is given carte blanche with his own show.  His multiplicity of styles, the thickness of his contacts book and the breadth of his imagination suggest that audiences should expect the unexpected!

Approximately 1 hour 45 mins

Internet bookingBester Quartet
Friday 18th June, 10.30pm*
Saturday 19th June, 7.30pm
Bester Quartet is a reincarnation of the legendary Krakow Klezmer Band. One of Poland's most passionate and creative bands, the Quartet blends the traditional Jewish music of Eastern Europe with elements of Balkan music and contemporary jazz. Bester Quartet performs to sell-out audiences at prestigious venues worldwide.

'The sheen of their ensemble sound, the virtuosity of their solos and the intelligence and drama of their performances - the effect was haunting.'
Chicago Tribune

Approximately 1 hour 15 mins

Internet bookingThe Table
Sunday 20th June, 6pm & 10.15pm*
Monday 21st June, 6pm
 Karbido present an extraordinary musictheatre piece for four men and a table. Four poker players emerge from the darkness and sit around a table. It’s not a game of poker, though, but a fantastic quartet performed on the table, which is transformed into a musical instrument capable of detecting and amplifying the most delicate vibrations. A mesmerising
performance which takes the audience on an acoustic journey round the globe.

‘Awesome, manic or witty. If it’s difficult to imagine, that’s because you’ll never have seen or heard
anything quite like it’ The Scotsman (5 stars)

‘An extraordinary musical spectacle’ The Times

Approximately 1 hour

Internet bookingTrebunie Tutki
Monday 21st June, 10pm*
Trebunie Tutki is a family band from Poland’s Tatra mountains. Playing fiddles, flutes, ‘regional’ cello, bass, bagpipes and wooden horn, these remarkable, award-winning musicians combine their own ‘highlander’ music with contemporary influences. The band’s distinctive sound is coupled with traditional costumes and dance to create a vibrant, colourful and unmissable show.

Approximately 1 hour 15 minutes

Internet bookingCirculous!
Tuesday 22nd June, 6.30pm & 9.30pm
Wednesday 23rd June, 6.30pm & 9.30pm
Prepare to be amazed by our stunning selection of physical performers. Expect spectacular martial arts, breathtaking roller skating, contemporary clowning and awe-inspiring acrobatics; but be sure that everything you see will have a very particular twist of its own. Charlie Holland, creator of Oiseau Rouge and Faring, brings his cast together from Germany, Holland, Australia, New Zealand and the UK - for these four shows only!

Approximately 2 hours

*Tickets for events asterisked above include admission to the Festival Club on the same night.