Jim Gilchrist: Local talent and big names take their partners for a birl round the capital

So while howffs and halls reverberate with come-all-ye storytelling and ceilidhs powered by such local outfits as the Canongate Cadjers and the Robert Fish Band, established headliners like the Barnsley lintie Kate Rusby, Ireland's Paul Brady and Shetland firebrands Fiddler's Bid will take the stages in the city's concert venues.

Other notable events include two appearances from the eclectic string players of Mr McFall's Chamber and their guests: the first in a programme of music by multi-instrumentalist Fraser Fifield and the late Martyn Bennett; then they re-emerge during the Edinburgh International Harp Festival (9-14 April, under the Ceilidh Culture umbrella) to join harpist and singer Corrina Hewat in a reworking of her Celtic Connections New Voices commission Making the Connection. Expect further state-of-the-art harping when the American jazz harpist Park Stickney joins Scotland's Catriona McKay and Chris Stout.

Featured singer-songwriters include Spanish-based Nebraskan Josh Rouse and a "Newfangled Folk" night of local songsmiths Kim Edgar, David Ferrard and Yvonne Lyon. And reflecting the burgeoning interest in Scandinavian music, the Traditional Music and Song Association has organised a series of "Northern Streams" concerts combining the likes of Border fiddler Lori Watson and Highland dancer Jamie MacDonald Reid, with visiting Swedish band Svanevit, Norwegian hardanger fiddler Britt Pernille Frholm and accordionist Irene Tillung, and Danish players Hal Parfitt Murray and Nikolaj Busk.

Edinburgh Folk Club pitches in too, with guests including the engagingly zany Woody Pines from North Carolina, and what we're told is a final tour from the seasoned and characterful duo of Robin Williamson and John Renbourn. And guests of the Royal Oak's Wee Folk Club include the pairing of Nuala Kennedy and Ewan MacPherson.

There is a certain opportunist element to Ceilidh Culture's programme, which is co-ordinated by City of Edinburgh Council, in that the higher-profile acts may well have had Edinburgh on their tour schedules anyway, while events such as the Edinburgh Harp Festival or the Lowland and Border Pipers' Society competition, are long established. Having said that, the festival's emphasis on bringing the music to as wide a local audience as possible (this year sees a Street Fair on 2-5 April), is an ethos which appeals to many, not least Edinburgh-based singer and fiddler Mairi Campbell – whose duo with husband Dave Francis, The Cast, achieved international fame two years ago when their rendition of Auld Lang Syne featured in the Sex and the City movie.

Campbell can be seen as embracing both strands of the festival, not only launching her first non-Cast album during the event but also directing her community-based "folk choir", Sangstream. She regards Ceilidh Culture rather as "the folk Fringe", giving everyone a chance to participate. "I love this festival," she says. "It really is a people's folk festival and I can think of no better place or time to showcase my first solo album."

One suspects that Robert Fergusson, the tragically short-lived 18th-century bard of the city's "plainstanes and causey", would have approved, and appropriately enough, he receives his due in an event in the Central Library, combining recitations from author and broadcaster Billy Kay with singer Rod Paterson and other folk musicians. Similarly another ill-fated bard and songwriter, Paisley's Robert Tannahill, is celebrated at the Burns'n'Blue: Robert Tannahill Centenary Concert.

As Fergusson himself adjured: "Fiddlers! Your pins in temper fix / And roset weel your fiddlesticks."

Ceilidh Culture runs from 26 March to 18 April. For programme and booking details see www.ceilidhculture.co.uk. For the Edinburgh International Harp Festival see www.harpfestival.co.uk