Orkney Festival 2024

Do you mean the Folk Festival, the Science Festival or the Nature Festival, the Rock Festival, the Blues Festival, the Storytelling Festival or the St Magnus International Festival?

If the Folk Festival (which is my guess) then anywhere on Orkney mainland (ie- not one of the out isles) will do as events are scattered right across the mainland from Stromness all the way down to the Pentland ferries ferry port of St Margaret's Hope, out east to Tankerness and north to Birsay.

So a car will be essential, and a designated driver each day. Unless you are happy to just attend events in Stromness, Kirkwall and St Margaret's Hope where the bus service will be very adequate.

The widest range of accommodation and a central location for all those venues would be the island's capital of Kirkwall. But as the festival is centred on Stromness that may be the better place.

I don't think that where I have stayed in Stromness before survived Covid, so the Stromness Hotel is the obvious choice.

But Stromness does not have that many places to stay, so if staying there book your lodgings now, but also your flights if flying to Orkney.

The two ferry companies won't be open for bookings for a few months yet.

Orkney isn't big. Driving to anywhere else from Stromness won't take much more than an hour to the furthest flung locations,

You may find this page useful for finding accommodation- https://www.orkney.com/plan/accommodation

After reading isn31c/Stuart's post, I'll suggest the place I just stayed on Burray if any location on the mainland will work. It's across a few of the Churchill Barriers but literally a 45 minute drive or so between there and Stromness. It's 5 minutes from St Margaret's Hope.

I had a wonderful week-long stay at The Sands. The rooms are very nice, felt newly remodeled. The food in the restaurant was delish and is a place that the locals go. My taxi driver from the airport said he and his wife go there for special occasions. The best part was that the staff is awesome. They were very welcoming and eager to please! As indicated you will need a car.

Thanks, Pam. I checked the Sands and they are already booked for the dates we want to be there (May 23-26). Thanks very much for responding.
Cheers