A packed week of fun and events bring Burntisland to life

The annual event which has been running for the last five decades is always keenly anticipated with many individuals and businesses happy to get involved.

A new organising committee took over the running of Civic Week this year, following its AGM in February and secretary Michael Booth says that they were keen to keep it going.

“It’s run by volunteers from the local community,” he said, “and when we took over from the previous committee it involved a lot of hard work.

“We needed to know what needs done and have been going through a whole list of things and speaking to different groups to get the events lined up.”

Key to the success of the diary of events is community engagement: “Everyone gets a programme through their door so they know about it,” Michael said.

“Some events are organised by the committee but others are put on by businesses in the town and we can happily give them our support.

“We also need to thank our returning and new sponsors for helping to keep it going.

Coming back by popular demand is the raft race which was re-introduced in 2016 having been absent from the programme for some years.

“It was really popular so hopefully we’ll get a few more taking part,” Michael said.

“We’re all looking forward to Parade Day as well to see what colourful characters appear in our ‘TV and Film’ themed parade along the High Street.

“Hopefully the sun is shining to make it a great day!”

Michael said the new committee is already looking ahead to next year.

“Hopefully we can get more people on board and set up more events,” he said.

“We’ve been working to keep it manageable but we’ll certainly be working hard to do more next time.”

Kicking off proceedings tomorrow is the Shop Window Competition based on the theme of ‘TV and Film’.

Saturday sees the crowning of the Summer King and Queen on Parade Day which begins at 12.15pm at East Leven Street.

Other highlights across the 10 days include the opening of the Heritage Exhibition on Saturday, the Fitness Festival Fundraiser on Sunday and Inner and Outer Heritage Walks on Wednesday 21 and Friday 23 respectively.

Eagerly anticipated is the family Beach Day which includes a sandcastle competition and scavenger hunt and - the highlight for many - the Raft Race across the bay.

The programme ends on Sunday 25th with an over 18s Karaoke session in the Old Port Bar.

Most of the events in this year’s programme are free.

To see more visit the Burntisland Civic Week Facebook page.