Festivals In Fife is an initiative of Fife Council, initially funded by Creative Scotland. It’s purpose is to assist festivals of strategic importance in Fife to develop collectively and grow their capacity for development in order to maximise opportunities.

They aim to advance Fife’s position locally, nationally and internationally as a world-class festival destination and be recognised as a collective of quality festivals offering excellent experiences for locals and visitors alike.

Festivals in Fife has been working with Culture Republic on a research project that is mapping the economic and social impact of the ten individual festivals and bringing into focus a picture of the range of impacts the festivals have in the community and local economy. This insight would be used to take forward the festivals’ goals of shared promotion and advocacy while allowing for more effective collaboration and strategic planning.

So far the findings across six of the festivals are showing a largely consistent picture – visitors are coming from around Fife, Scotland and the rest of the UK (in that order); there is a high level of volunteer input and community-building in each; audiences for the festivals tend to be more female than male and to date there has been a total of roughly £4m of economic uplift as a result of people taking part in the festivals.

What did visitors say is the single best thing about the festivals? Here are some direct quotes from survey respondents:

• As ever, the general friendliness and intimacy of attendees and festival staff (including the ability to be so close to the performers which breaks down barriers). (East Neuk Festival)
• Discovering it!! (St Andrew’s Voices)
• Good to see kids having lots to do, which doesn’t include video games. (Bruce Festival)
• Good variety of activities and mix of people. (Bruce Festival)
• Gorgeous food. Very local festival feel to it. (Crail Food Festival)
• Great for the wee town. Gets better every year. (Crail Food Festival)
• Great to meet makers in their home workshops and chat to them informally about their work. It is also a way of visiting places in Fife that one wouldn’t go to normally, so exploring the wider area. (Open Studios North Fife)
• I’ve never seen anything like it. The way the whole community has come together to stage this is great. (Open Studios North Fife)
• Impossible to single out any one aspect; however, if pushed, it has to be the intimate nature of the festival. (East Neuk Festival)
• It wouldn’t be a place I would visit without the festival, so it is good for local business. (Pittenweem Arts Festival)
• Just the fact it’s here. It’s beautiful. Very good for the town. (Pittenweem Arts Festival)