Folkies: Serving Cultural Demand
For diaspora groups across the world, music is a means of returning home, if only through song. For the diverse community on Kilburn Highroad, Folkies, a specialist multi-instrument store and repair shop, serves this need in the community, for whatever musical niche comes through the door. The shop’s founder Omri Schitrit, a classically trained violin crafter, relishes the challenge a new instrument brings “The reason I’m here is because I always enjoy the variety, finding out about other instruments, the technical side of it, I always enjoy a challenge.”
The walls of Folkies are lined with a dazzling eclectic array of instruments from across the world. It originally formed alongside a 75-year-old accordion shop in 2008, during the past 14 years Omri has seen the demographics of the area shift through the demand for instruments. “There’s definitely less Irish working-class music nowadays, like the guys who would take their whistles or banjos to the pub.” Omri says, “Today, I would definitely say there’s a lot of Middle Eastern instruments, East African, a lot of Brazilian influence, etc”.
After talking to Omri, a group of young teenagers come into the shop, the leader throwing her hands up in the air proclaiming “This is it!” Before exploring the vast line-up of instruments, as Omri tinkers with an unusually stringed guitar behind his desk.
“I would say that we enjoy celebrating the tradition, the proper London tradition of the music scene, as well as the internationalism and the multi-culturalism that we really see on a daily basis.”
Omri Schitrit – Founder of Folkies
Folkies is one of the few remaining specialist shops on Kilburn High Road, a London high street tradition that Omri is proud to hold on to. “When I go to other high streets I’m not going to be pulled in by the Greggs,” he tells us. “I would say that we enjoy celebrating the tradition, the proper London tradition of the music scene, as well as the internationalism and the multi-culturalism that we really see on a daily basis.“
While Folkies serves Kilburn high street it is also a product of it, relying not only on the richness of the local diversity but reacting and responding directly to their cultural needs. Or as Omri puts it “I think we’re part of life here on quite a few different levels, I think we add a lot of value. This is our little place on earth, and we serve the community, so the richer it is (culturally) the better”.
