New festival looks set to be BRAW
Event will come hot on heels of BOOKMARK
Plans for a new arts festival for east Perthshire this autumn have been announced.
Blairgowrie and Rattray Arts Week - BRAW - will take place in October, hot on the heels of the fifth BOOKMARK festival.
The new festival has evolved from the Rattray Arts Festival, which used to take place in Rattray over the August bank holiday weekend, and rather than taking place in one venue over a weekend it will feature a range of activities and venues over seven days.
Lesley McDonald and Tina Gliddon, who took on the Rattray Arts Festival last year when founder Johanna Frampton stepped down after seven years at the helm, are behind plans for the new event, which is due to take place from October 9-15.
Lesley said that she and Tina, along with artists Ella Stewart and Anick Pitcher, and Tracie Dick from the Create at NEST venture in Blairgowrie, were looking forward to the new event.
She said: “We were keen to build on the Rattray Arts Festival and extend it both in terms of the length of time it was on and the range of events and activities it offered.
“The idea is that by coordinating dates with the BOOKMARK festival, we will be offering visitors to the area even more of an attractive destination that will hopefully encourage them to stay in the area for even longer.
“Maybe people will come to the area for BOOKMARK and stay on for BRAW, or be coming for BRAW and decide to come earlier and enjoy BOOKMARK too.
“And as well as having something for visitors, we hope that the Blairgowrie and Rattray Arts Week will appeal to local people too.”
Lesley continued: “We are delighted to have the team at Create at NEST in Reform Street involved too. They will be holding
Pictured at a special preview viewing on Friday night are, from left, organisers Tina Gliddon and Johanna Frampton, piper Jack Liddell, chair of the Rattray Art Festival Andrew Hodge, artist and organiser Anick Pitcher and Lesley McDonald
crafts workshops during the start of the week.
“We also hope to have a couple of artists doing lessons during the week leading up to the main exhibition in Rattray Hall over the weekend.
“That exhibition will stick to the same tried and tested format of the Rattray Arts Festival, but the change in name reflects that this is a new venture combining elements of the Rattray Arts Festival with new aspects and building on the original concept of having a week-long event.”
The team behind BRAW are also working with the Blairgowrie Players on a possible show that they will rehearse during the week - with involvement from local people and perform at the weekend at Blairgowrie Town Hall.
And organisers also hope to tie in
another cultural event in the town - the Hamish Henderson festival which is currently being planned for November 2019.
Bob Ellis is chair of the Blairgowrie and East Perthshire Tourist Association (BEPTA) and welcomed this latest addition to the calender of events in the area.
He commented: “The month of October has always been considered to be a bit of a quiet month in the tourism calendar but Blairgowrie is bucking that trend.
“Over the past few years, October has come alive in Blairgowrie and Rattray, particularly as the BOOKMARK Festival has grown and grown into a really exciting and very interesting event with authors and speakers coming from afar.
“I was delighted to hear the proposals last week for the forthcoming Blairgowrie and
Rattray Arts Week in October - this event and all it involves can only be of great benefit to our area as I am sure it will bring many visitors to our town and the whole of east Perthshire.”
Lesley added that details of the programme are still being developed and will be confirmed over the coming months, but that everyone involved was very enthusiastic and excited about the festival.
She said: “We really hope that by moving to this time of the year and working with other groups and organisations in the town we will be able to bring more people to the town and offer something for everyone, visitors and locals alike.
“It would be great if everyone got behind the Blairgowrie and Rattary Arts Week and supported it.
“It’s going to be BRAW!”
Maybe people will come to the area for BOOKMARK and stay on for BRAW