Annual cultural events in Aberdeen, Dundee, Orkney, Argyll and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway, Inverness, Fife and the Isle of Tiree have secured a share of a new multi-million pound fund ringfenced for dozens of festivals across Scotland.
Creative Scotland has announced 28 initial recipients from a new cash pot for events to stage special projects and commissions.
It is being rolled out as part of the Scottish Government’s commitment - which was first made in 2023 - to increase arts spending by £100m by 2028.
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The Expanded Festivals Fund, which was first announced nearly two years, is open to annual events staged anywhere in Scotland and has an initial budget of at least £5m a year.
The new initiative is a major expansion of a Festivals Expo Fund, which was previously restricted to events in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and has had a budget of around £1.7m in recent years.
It is aimed at helping festivals create more international links, programme strands and talent development initiatives, as well as expand their audiences, grow their profile and attract more arts industry delegates.
Almost £2 million worth of initial funding has been confirmed for festivals who applied for grants of up to £100,000 for special projects over the next two years.
A further round of awards for events seeking up to £200,000 for the same period is expected to be announced in May, after the Holyrood election.
Knockengorroch, Dumfries and Galloway’s longest-running music festival, the Orkney Folk Festival, which has been running for more than 40 years, silent movie festival Hippfest, which is staged at the Scotland’s oldest purpose-built cinema, in Bo’ness, and the Sea Change Festival in Tiree, Scotland’s only celebration of female filmmakers, are among the first events to benefit.
Others include the Dundee Jazz Festival, the Nairn Book and Arts Festival, the Pittenweem Arts Festival in Fife, Under Canvas, the outdoor musical festival staged in the grounds of the Inverness arts centre Eden Court, the St Andrews-based poetry festival Stanza and the Solas Festival, a midsummer "celebration of music, arts and ideas" in Perthshire.
More than £30m was previously distributed by the Festivals Expo Fund, which was initially created to help showcase Scottish work across Edinburgh’s flagship festivals and events.
It was expanded in recent years to include several events in Glasgow, including Celtic Connections, the Glasgow Film Festival, Sonica and Glasgow International.
Applications for the new fund opened last September after the government almost a year after Creative Scotland confirmed it had secured an additional £3m a year for a nationwide expansion of the Festivals Expo Fund.
Festivals in Edinburgh and Glasgow secured a share of £2.8m in the final round of the Expo Fund, which was announced last summer.
The Findhorn Bay Festival and the Dance North festival, which is also staged in the Morayshire village, have also been backed in the first round of the Expanded Festivals Fund, which is also backing Scottish traditional music festival Blas, which hosts shows and events across the Highlands, and the Lammermuir Festival, which stages classical music concerts across East Lothian.
Although it has opened up to festivals across Scotland, new events to benefit from the fund include Hidden Door, the Edinburgh multi-arts festival which moves around the city, Push The Boat Out, the city’s new poetry and spoken word celebration, and Tradfest, the annual celebration of traditional music in the Scottish capital, which is held in the spring.
Glasgow events which are being backed for the first time include the Merchant City Festival, the Glasgow Jazz Festival and the Govan Music Festival.
Festivals which have previously been supported through the Expo Fund are expected to secure support from the new fund in May’s announcement, including the Edinburgh International Festival, children’s festival Imaginate, the city’s celebrations of jazz, film, science, literature and visual art, and the Scottish capital’s Hogmanay festival.
The Wigtown Book Festival, the St Magnus Festival in Orkney and the Hebridean Celtic Festival on the Isle of Lewis were also involved in talks which led to the creation of the new fund, which was first announced in August 2024.
At the time, the government pledged to do more to support and promote festivals across Scotland "to ensure that they flourish and maximise their contribution to Scotland".
Creative Scotland said the initial round of support from the new fund "reflected the breadth and ambition of Scotland’s festival sector, and the transformative potential of this new investment".
Culture secretary Angus Robertson said: “Scotland has a wealth of outstanding festivals across the country which lie at the heart of our culture sector and national life.
“Our festivals’ ambitions and creativity provide focal points for activity and an invaluable platform for artists and performers to showcase their work. They also provide hundreds of millions of pounds to the economy and support a pipeline of jobs and businesses.
“The Expanded Festivals Fund forms part of the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to provide an additional £100 million more annually for culture funding by 2028-29.
“I am heartened to see this fund support incredible projects across Scotland which will increase participation in creative pursuits and ensure festivals can commission and collaborate on new and exciting works.”
Paul Burns, interim director of arts and engagement at Creative Scotland, said: “Scotland’s festivals are a vibrant celebration of our creativity and culture, recognised and enjoyed by local communities and people from around the world.
“The Expanded Festivals Fund is a new opportunity to profile incredible creative work in every corner of the country and support other areas vital to our festivals’ ongoing success.
“The supported projects reflect the full range of our festivals’ work - including sector and talent development, international collaboration, and the development of new projects with specific groups and communities in their areas.”
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