- Print page
- Send to a friend
- Feedback
- Bookmark (Ctrl+D)
- Home Page
Leisure, Culture and Tourism- Museums
- Who we are
Heritage Fairs 2009
What are Heritage Fairs?
A Heritage Fair is a dynamic community celebration of the culture and traditions that are unique to each community. The Fairs encourage individuals to engage with, and foster a sense of pride in, the heritage of their community.
The Heritage Fairs actively involve schools, museums, artists and performers, heritage organizations, businesses and community groups in a contemporary celebration of shared traditions and history.
Schools are invited to produce a project that celebrates their local culture and traditions that will then be showcased at the Fair. This might include 3D exhibits, creative writing, performance or audio-visual media to tell stories about Aberdeenshire. These stories could envelope traditions, heroes, milestones and achievements.
It is hoped that the community will be as broadly represented as possible with a variety of stalls and activities to bring the event to life. These may include heritage related displays, traditional music and performance, craft demonstrations, storytelling, historical re-enactment and other activities that will provide a rich and diverse event for the enjoyment of the whole community.
What’s happening in Aberdeenshire?
It is the Director of Education’s vision that the Heritage Fair Programme should be piloted in 2008 and rolled out across Aberdeenshire in 2009, to coincide with the ‘Year of Homecoming’.
Aberdeenshire Council piloted the Heritage Fairs Programme with 4 communities in summer/autumn 2008. The communities that will participated in the 2008 pilot were: Banchory, Peterhead, Inverurie, and Fraserburgh.
Heritage Fairs that will be taking place in 2009 are as follows:
Date |
Community, Schools & Theme |
Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Sat 2nd May & Sunday 3rd May | Huntly - "Tracing your Heritage" | Sat - Brander Building (Museum, Library & Deveron Arts) Sun - Stewart Hall 11-3 |
| 22nd May | Laurencekirk - “Connections” | All day events throughout the community – re-opening of the railway station |
| Monday 8th June | Ellon - “Transitions” | Ellon Academy |
| Sat 13th June & Sun 14th June | Banchory - “Diaspora” | Sat – Banchory Museum & Library and Tourist Information Office. Performances in Marquee in Scott Skinner Square. Sun – St Ternans Fair events throughout Banchory |
| Sat 4th July | Portsoy - “Ballads and Bairns” | Salmon House and throughout Portsoy |
| Sat 18th July | Peterhead - "Around our Coast" | Main event - Central School, Peterhead. Also Arbuthnot Museum & Library |
| Sun 2nd August & Monday 3rd August | Turriff Show | Within Homecoming Village |
| Fri 25th September | Alford - “Charles Murray Week” | Alford Heritage Centre & Alford Primary |
| Sat 3rd Oct 1-4pm | Inverurie - “D’ya ken yer Doric” | Inverurie Academy, Museum and Library |
| Sat 10th October | Fraserburgh - “Expressive Arts” | Museum of Scottish Lighthouses & Fraserburgh Heritage Centre |
| Sat 15th November | Haddo - “Magika Musika” | Haddo House |
| Sat 28th November | Stonehaven - “Father of the Bard”, Heritage Fairs Finale | Stonehaven Community Centre, Museum and Library |
If you would like to get involved with the Heritage Fair in your community please contact Ingrid Turner 01224 665514
Huntly – Saturday 2nd May, Brander Museum and Library
Sunday 3rd May Stewart Hall.
Theme – Ancestral Heritage.
Sat - The event will commence on Saturday 2nd May in the Brander Building with various workshops and exhibitions being held in the museum and library. These include a workshop called “Early Man Craft Workshop” being held by the staff from Archaeolink, “Burns for Bairns workshop”, and the opening of an exhibition on local men who were in the Gordon Highlanders during WWI, which has been possible as a result of collaboration with the Gordon Highlanders Museum who have kindly loaned many of the items for display. Events start at 11.00am.
Sun - On Sunday 3rd May 2009 the Stewarts Hall will be the venue for a celebration of Huntly’s cultural and ancestral heritage between 11.00am and 3.00pm. The event will include performances from many local and internationally renowned performers including Emily White, John Cockburn and Fraser Wilson along with pupils from the Gordon Schools.
There will also be a musical play from the Rhona Mitchell School of Drama as well as pupils from the local Gordon Schools participating, in addition to talks by Family History experts and workshops on Family Tree “growing” aimed at younger children interested in finding out more about their own heritage.
Stalls, displays and resources also provided by the North-East Scotland Family History Society, City & Shire Archives, Aberdeenshire Museums & Library Service, Clan Davidson and Huntly Registrars to name a few.
Laurencekirk- Venues throughout Laurencekirk - Official Opening of Railway Station
Theme - Railways/Connections
23nd May Community celebrations in Mearns Academy 11am-3pm
Community - The Heritage fair will form part of wider celebrations for the re-opening of Laurencekirk railway station in May, a number of key partners for this event have already been established, these include Mearns Area Partnership, Mearns Heritage Group, Caledonia Railway, Network Rail, Laurencekirk and District Rotary. Activities forming part of these celebrations will be themed around the Railway and focus on demonstrating community achievement to reflect the committed community campaign to re-open the station.
Ellon- Monday 8th June, Ellon Academy.
The Ellon cluster are progressing a transition event with a heritage focus that will involve the primaries and academy in a showcase event in May. This project is entitled ‘Oor Bairns, Their Culture’. There will be a schools sharing event during the day and followed by a community heritage fair. Schools project work from this event may also feed into the Haddo House event in November.
Banchory- Venues throughout Banchory Sat 13th & Sunday 14th June 09
Theme – Diaspora/Tracing your heritage
Sat – Museum – World’s First Living Doric Dictionary. Black House in the AV Room in the museum, representative of the old world - Portholes on back stairs leading up to the new world in the library.
Library – New world – Treasure hunt for children, they have to find objects synonymous with émigré countries and bring back to Scotland. Adult trivia quiz to coincide. North-East Family History Society to run “How to start tracing your family tree workshop” in the local studies room.
Scott Skinner Square – Marquee for schools performances, Banchory Lions to hold book stall.
Sun - See web site for full details.
http://www.banchory.org/visit_banchory/st_ternan_s_fair.html
Portsoy – Scottish Traditional Portsoy Boat Festival Sat 4th July
http://www.stbf.bizland.com/2009/
Schools – YMI -Youth Music Initiative supports the delivery of Ballads & Bairns project, which culminates in a performance at the Festival and traditional instrumental music weekend workshops leading up to the festival.
Community – Aberdeenshire Museums & Heritage Service, Aberdeenshire Arts and Aberdeenshire Libraries will exhibit during the festival, the Reading Bus will also be present.
Symposium. Thursday 2nd July
As part of the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival there will be a Symposium on Thursday 2nd July, admission £5.00. Commencing at 10.00am.
Why not go along for a unique opportunity to see presentations by some of the world's leading experts on traditional boat design. Check the website link above for details or please download the poster below.
Peterhead- Central School, Arbuthnot Museum & Library Sat 18th July
Theme – Around our Coast
http://www.peterheadscottishweek.org/
Community - Rhona Mitchell School of Drama performance of "Lottie", Heritage, Arts and Family history societies.
Schools - The Peterhead network, due to the success of projects last year, have actively sought to develop work initiated last year as part of the Peterhead pilot heritage fair. The schools will produce a project entitled 'Around our Coast'. Projects from this programme of work will be showcased at Peterhead Heritage Fair scheduled to take place on July 18th as part of Scottish Week.
Turriff - Turriff Show Sunday 2nd & Monday 3rd August 2009
Community – The Museum, Library and Arts will have displays at the show in the Homecoming Village.
Alford - Heritage Centre in Alford 25th Sept.
Theme – Charles Murray Week
Schools - this event provides an opportunity to further support Alford Primary in the development of Charles Murray Week in Alford in particular by broadening input into the event to include other schools in the network. A further project is in the early stages to work with Alford Primary in the development of a children's guide to Alford Heritage Centre, if this progresses it would feed into the Heritage Fair event. The heritage fair event will link with the Hamewith Concert.
Community – Grampian Transport Museum, Alford Heritage Centre, Aberdeenshire Museums and Heritage Service, Alford Library.
Inverurie- Venue - Inverurie Academy Sat 3rd Oct
Theme – Doric Festival
Schools - there is an opportunity to strengthen links with the Doric Festival events in Inverurie and as such develop the Doric based project work undertaken by schools in this network for last year's pilot event. This may also provide an opportunity for a mini launch for the second Doric Book produced by the Reading Bus.
Community – Inverurie Library, Inverurie Museum, Gairoch Heritage Society, Gairoch Art Club, Gairoch Floral Club.
Fraserburgh - Museum of Scottish Lighthouses & Fraserburgh Heritage Centre – 10th October
Theme – Expressive Arts Week
Schools - Development of last year's project work with potential focus on the cluster's Expressive Arts Week.
Community – Lighthouse Museum, Heritage Centre, Aberdeenshire Museums and Library Service.
Meldrum Heritage Fair at Haddo House- Sunday 15th Nov 10am – 4pm
FREE ENTRY
A celebration of local culture and traditions including displays and performances by schoolchildren, exhibitions and performances by local artists and community groups Guided tours of Haddo House conducted by local schoolchildren throughout the day. The Macaulay Institutes Virtual Landscape Theatre will also be here.
Among the many community groups present are -
Meldrum and Bourtie Heritage Society, Daviot Heritage Society, Udny Historical Society,Tarves Heritage Society, Family History Society of Buchan, Meldrum Church, Meldrum Rotary, City Archives, Friends of Haddo Country Park and the National Trust.
Please check or download our poster below.
Meldrum Heritage Fair (pdf246kb)
To find more Aberdeenshire events please use our Events page.
Stonehaven – Saturday 28th November 11am – 4pm - Stonehaven Community Centre, the Tolbooth Museum and Stonehaven Library.
FREE EVENT
Countdown has begun for Stonehaven Heritage Fair on Saturday 28th November - with the wealth of talent in the area and a wide variety of organisations and groups taking part, it promises to be a day to remember!
Supported by Aberdeenshire Council and Heritage Lottery Fund, the Stonehaven Heritage Fair is the final such event in a series held over the last year and will explore and celebrate local culture and traditions with an array of stalls and activities.
Throughout the day live performances – featuring music and song, traditional and more contemporary, stories and poetry - will complement the wide variety of displays from community and school groups.
Stonehaven Community Centre is the main venue with the Tolbooth Museum and Stonehaven Library also featuring displays and activities from 11 a.m. to the grand finale just before 4 p.m.
Enjoy live performances from, amongst others -
Stonehaven Folk Club, Lemon Tree Writers, Maggie Fraser (Scottish Storytellers Centre), Grassic Gibbon Songwriters.
Explore
Stonehaven Heritage Society, R.W. Thomson Fellowship, Maritime Rescue Institute, Registrars and NE Family History Society, Andy Hall Photography, Local community Art and Writing.
STONEHAVEN LIBRARY (open 10am – 4pm)
Storytelling for children (Susan McKay), Trace your roots – local expert and computer access, School exhibits.
For a more detailed list and poster for the Heritage Fair, click on the download links below.
Stonehaven Heritage Fair Poster(pdf 238KB)
Stonehaven Heritage Fair activities(doc 16.2KB)
To find more Aberdeenshire events please use our Events page.
To find more Aberdeenshire events please use our Events page.
