Outwith Festival confirms return to Fife in 2022

Fife’s Outwith Festival is set to return in 2022.
Roddy Woomble on stage at OutwithRoddy Woomble on stage at Outwith
Roddy Woomble on stage at Outwith

The music and arts event, which showcased film, music, comedy, literature, theatre and art across 23 venues in Dunfermline has confirmed it will run next year from September 6-11.

Outwith was one of many events cancelled in 2020 by the pandemic, and organisers are looking into the possibility of some taster events this year before its full return in 2022.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As well as the impact of lockdown, Outwith no longer has the financial backing of Dunfermline Delivers, which folded last year, or a full time paid events manager.

The team behind Fife's Outwith FestivalThe team behind Fife's Outwith Festival
The team behind Fife's Outwith Festival

It is now looking at new ways of generating revenue to showcase the widest possible range of creative talent.

The festival, which has doubled in size each year since it launched in 2017, was organised by Delivering Dunfermline’s Events Manager, Chris Foote, in partnership with Jane Livingstone and Michelle McWilliams from Avocado Sweet and Ian Moir from Fire Station Creative.

The team team of volunteers is forming a new structure, focused on promoting inclusive culture, music and artists in Dunfermline - and the fundraising now needs to ramp up for 2022 to fill the shortfall.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Michelle McWilliams said on behalf of the team: “There are challenges and we’ll need to look at clever ways of generating more revenue such as increased ticket income and fundraising from a wider range of sources.

“Fortunately, the team have all worked in professions essential for staging a festival and most of us are practising artists, writers and musicians.”

Some of the programming for the 2020 festival was already underway before it was cancelled, and the team will look at rescheduling some of that programming to 2022.

During Outwith 2019, audiences attended 74 film, music, comedy, literature, theatre and art events in 23 venues with over 300 performances.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It was also a boon for Dunfermline’s economy, with the festival attracting more than 9,000 attendances and a spend of £334,000.

The economic impact report also found that the event was already attracting visitors from the rest of Scotland, the UK and overseas with over one in five festival-goers travelling from outside of Fife.

Thank you for reading this article on our free-to-read website. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

Please consider purchasing a subscription to our print newspaper to help fund our trusted, fact-checked journalism.

Related topics: