Festival is back, bigger and brawer
Blairgowrie and Rattray Arts Week - the It’s Braw! festival is back for a second year.
This year the festival will take place during the second week in August, a departure from its October date last year.
And the team behind the event is already pulling together the programme for the week-long celebration of arts, crafts, drama and music.
It’s Braw! evolved from the Rattray Arts Festival, which used to take place over the August bank holiday weekend.
Rather than taking place in one venue over a weekend, it features a range of activities and venues over seven days.
Lesley McDonald and Tina Gliddon, who took on the Rattray Arts Festival two years ago when founder Johanna Frampton stepped down, are behind It’s Braw! which is due to take place from August 6 to 12.
Lesley said she and Tina, along with artists Ella Stewart and Anick Pitcher and Tracie Dick from Create at Nest in Blairgowrie, are looking forward to the second year of the 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.
“We wanted to do it in the school holidays again, as that worked well in the October holidays last year, but we wanted to try a different time of year so thought we would bring it forward to the summer holidays.
“We’ll be sticking to a similar format to last year with workshops and events in arts, crafts, drama and music and the Rattray Arts Festival taking place over the weekend.”
Last year the festival included everything from weaving with Ashleigh Slater to needle felting with Sarah Urie, as well as drawing, painting, fused glass, upcycling, silver ring making and printing techniques, with many of the workshops fully booked up.
As well as the arts and crafts workshops It’s Braw! also saw a traditional music night in the Balmoral and a quiz.
The Blairgowrie Players reprised their performance of controversial play ‘The Arrow’, there was a murder mystery night at Cargill’s Bistro and the popular Coaltown Daisies and local duo Jordan Fox and Callum McHoul rocked Blairgowrie Town Hall. Lesley McDonald Angus Findlay
The Rattray Arts Festival in Rattray Church Hall was also popular.
Details of the programme for this year’s festival will be confirmed over the coming months.
Lesley said: “It would be great if everyone got behind the Blairgowrie and Rattray Arts Week and supported it once again. It’s going to be braw.”
We thought we would bring it forward to the summer