Snowdrop festival will be all white here
Busy programme of activities
The popular Snowdrop Festival returns to Coupar Angus later this month.
Now in its fourth year, the festival will take place over two weeks in the east Perthshire town and will feature a range of activities and events highlighting its spectacular snowdrops.
Part of the national Snowdrop Festival, which features snowdrop displays in over 50 locations around Scotland, the Coupar Angus Snowdrop Festival remains the only snowdrop-themed community event in the country.
As well as the popular snowdrop walks in and around the town, the festival will also see the return of a number of events over the course of the two weeks, including the annual Snowdrop bingo tea run by Coupar Angus Primary School’s parent council group, the Abbey Church Spring Fair, the themed window display competition and the snowdrop cycle organised by the Coupar Angus Cycling Hub.
The festival gets underway on Thursday, February 23 with the snowdrop lecture which this year features two speakers.
Terrill Dobson of Scotland’s Gardens will talk about how the national Scottish Snowdrop Festival has developed over the past few years, and Katie Dessain from Lawton House near Arbroath will talk about the Georgian House’s woodland garden of beech trees which is carpeted with snowdrops and crocuses in spring.
New events for this year include a murder mystery supper in the Abbey Church on Monday, February 27.
Coupar Angus Pride of Place are organising a number of events as part of the festival. As well as their fundraising ceilidh in early March, the award-winning volunteer group is also holding a dinner dance at the Red House Hotel on Saturday, February 25 and will be running a snowdrop tea shop in the Y Hall on Union Street in the town over the weekend of February 25 and February 26.
The shop will be serving refreshments and will have a range of snowdrop-themed crafts and goods available to purchase.
The Coupar Angus Garden Group will be holding a flower show in the St Anne’s Church Hall over the weekend as well, highlighting spring bulbs, plants and flowers and featuring Kate Gregory from Moyness Garden Centre who will give a demonstration of floral art and flower arranging on Saturday afternoon.
And mixed media artist Roz Arno-Button will be exhibiting her new work inspired by the winter landscape at the Potting Shed studio at Easter Balgersho over the weekend.
The exhibition will also feature a gigantic snowdrop made from willow, snowdrops and other spring flowers created by garden designer Helen Carmichael.
Local crafters at the High Street Store at the Cross in the town will be running free introductory workshops on spinning, Viking wire knitting and painting on slate over the weekend.
John Palfreyman of the Coupar Angus Town Team group is one of the organisers of the festival.
He said: “This is the fourth year of our festival, which started after a chance conversation between a couple of us and Catherine Erskine from Cambo House in Fife. Catherine was the founder of the Scottish Snowdrop Festival and Cambo is well worth a visit in February to see its amazing banks of snowdrops. Our festival is loosely co-ordinated by the Town Team but really it is about local groups sharing their skills, excitement, enterprise and enthusiasm for snowdrops and for Coupar Angus.”