How community rallied to save Hogmanay festival from Storm Dylan

A huge community effort helped save the Town Square bash after gales of up to 70mph battered the marquee it was to be held in on Sunday morning.

A section of the structure buckled as several of the one tonne water butts anchoring it toppled over and fell into the scaffolding holding it up, and the bottom section moved away from the top by around three feet, pulling the strutts apart.

A section of the material covering the tent was also torn, and tables and benches which had been set up in preparation for the evening were blown over and smashed.

However a huge effort by members of Kirkcaldy YMCA, Kitty’s nightclub and teams from the Community Payback sector as well as other individuals rallied to ensure that the show went on.

They worked flat out until just an hour before the event, headlined by local band The Columbos, started, ensuring hundreds of revellers had a party to welcome in the New Year.

Vehicles, including minibuses from Kitty’s and a horsebox were brought in to act as windbreaks while the repair work was carried out.

And Liz Easton, manager of Kirkcaldy YMCA, said a “massive effort” had gone into ensuring everything went ahead as planned.

“Beforehand we had agreed that if the weather was really bad then the contingency was to hold the events in Kitty’s, so it would have gone ahead whatever. However it wouldn’t have been the same.

“Because it was the first event in 17 years it had to be a success, so we had to pull out all the stops to ensure it happened. Everyone was fantastic and really went above and beyond to make it happen and I am very grateful to them for their support.

“We couldn’t have done it without everyone pulling together, and I think that there were between 40-50 people involved in the rescue effort.

“The Community Payback guys who were to be collecting litter all helped out and even called in two extra teams to help us get everything sorted, which was great.”

And Liz said that the other Twixmas events including the family fundays with entertainers, arts and crafts and other family friendly activities had been well attended.

“There were about 200 people each day coming and going, and the family ceilidh on the Friday night also drew in around 200 people.

“The young bands night with Kyle Falconer from The View sold about 280 tickets and the Hogamanay event really had the marquee bouncing and was almost a sellout.

“People were telling us that we had really helped put Kirkcaldy back on the map as a place to go for Hogmanay and Councillor Alistair Cameron who popped in on the night has said it would be great to make it an annual event.”

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

The three-day Twixmas programme was organised by Kirkcaldy YMCA in conjunction with the Linton Lane Centre and supported by Fife Council and Kitty’s nightclub. It included events for people of all ages.

Free daytime events for families on Friday and Saturday included arts and crafts sessions, cupcake decorating, face painting, a mini zoo and children’s entertainers such as Kenny the Klown.
The cost of these was met by the sale of tickets for evening entertainment with a family ceilidh with Fife’s youngest ceilidh band, Lost Shores, and dancers from the Danielle Law School of Dance on the Friday night.
Saturday featured live music from three local bands: Root System; Oskar Braves and Break the Butterfly, and headlined by Kyle Falconer, lead singer with The View.
Then on Sunday it was the turn of popular Kirkcaldy band The Columbos who had everyone on their feet to welcome in 2018, with the help of K107fm’s John Murray, who was compere for the night.