Wealth of creativity tells a BRAW story
Nearly 400 attended events during town’s art festival
Hundreds of people in Blairgowrie, Rattray and beyond enjoyed local tales shared by artists and creatives through music, art, photography, crafts and storytelling over the summer as part of the celebrations for Scotland’s Year of Stories.
The sessions, which took place in August and early September, were held as part of the fifth annual Blairgowrie and Rattray Arts for Wellbeing Festival – known as It’s BRAW – and were supported by the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund.
It’s BRAW runs throughout the year and aims to highlight the wealth of creative talent in the area and support the wellbeing of people in the local community by providing opportunities to participate in arts, crafts, music and drama activities.
Organisers have said that nearly 400 people attended events throughout the showcase month, which featured arts and crafts workshops, as well as music and drama and an art exhibition.
And thanks to £3400 from the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund, those behind the festival were able to offer more events throughout the whole of August and widen its audience.
Inspired by nature and the area’s rich cultural heritage, there were music events detailing the social history behind Belle Stewart’s famous song the ‘Berryfields o’ Blair’, accessible walks along the River Ericht with wildlife and plantlife experts, nature videography and photography workshops and several craft skills sessions at Nest Creative Spaces in the Wellmeadow.
A number of other events also took place in the town during the month, including the Rattray Arts Festival, which celebrates the talent and skills of local creative artists with an annual exhibition of work and featured hundreds of original paintings as well as selected designs by local potters and silversmiths and workshops run by some of the artists themselves.
In addition, there was an opportunity to enjoy several performances by award-winning local amateur dramatic group, Blairgowrie Players – including one of its popular Murder Mysteries and a production of ‘Dracula: The Final Countdown?’ in Blairgowrie Town Hall.
Lesley McDonald is chair of the It’s BRAW! committee.
She said: “We are really pleased with the response to this year’s It’s BRAW! Festival.
“It was great to have the opportunity to host a number of events that celebrated the local tales and legends of Blairgowrie and Rattray as part of the Year of Stories 2022 and we were delighted that so many people were keen to get together and share wellkent tales and the area’s cultural heritage and biodiversity through music, art, crafts and drama.
“Our aim every year is to get folk interacting and experiencing the wealth of creative arts and activities within the town and maybe try something new and I think we have achieved that once again.
“We want everyone to get involved and we had young people, older people, people from the international community who have made their home in Blairgowrie and Rattray, those who have lived here all their days and those visiting the town for a day or a short-break coming along to our events this year.
“Each of the committee members has put in an enormous amount of time and effort to pull together a programme that had something for everyone and that has absolutely paid off – it has been a fantastic festival and we’ve had excellent feedback from people who have attended the events, many of whom said that they wouldn’t have tried some of the sessions had they not been part of the festival.
“To be able to offer all this talent to people in a really affordable, accessible and achievable way is a real asset to the town and we are very grateful to the
Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories
Fund which has supported us to do that.”