The Arran folk music festival will return this summer for its 26th edition.

The festival will run from June 12-14 and will take place across several venues on the island.

The festival had been organised since 2011 by CIC, ArranEvents, who had to wind up last year as a result of pressing family and work commitments. However, Andy McCallum decided to keep the party going and took matters into his own hands.

The latest custodian of the festival revealed: “This year will see two evening concerts in Brodick Hall (followed by late night sessions in the Brodick Bar) and three afternoon sessions in the Douglas Hotel.

The free-to-attend afternoon sessions will again be hosted by the force of nature that is ‘Uncle’ Keith. These sessions are always well-attended and show the breadth of musical talent within our own community and amongst our visiting audience.

The Friday evening concert will feature Ivan Drever, the wonderful Orkney-native singer-songwriter, and MacDougall Couper Oakes which combines the incredible fiddle and guitar duo of Ross Couper and Tom Oakes with the pipes and whistles of the very talented Lorne MacDougall.

Saturday’s concert will feature North Ayrshire native Lauren Collier and her band, who fuse traditional folk with many world music influences. The headline act will see a very welcome return to one time Arran resident and renowned Gaelic singer Màiri MacInnes with her extraordinary band of equally famous musicians.”