Scotland’s Winter Festivals is to share in £430,000 funding to support events honouring St Andrew’s Day, Hogmanay and Burns Night.
St Andrews’s Day, which celebrates Scotland’s patron saint, has over 100 individual events running from November 26 to 30.
Many events are being delivered as part of the St Andrew’s Fair Saturday programme.
This festival highlights the importance of social inclusion, fairness and sharing and incorporates the Fair Saturday movement with Scotland’s national holiday.
Events are due to take place across the region including Portree, Inverness and Kyle and Lochalsh.
These places have live music shows that are part of the Blas Festival running alongside other events.
The major themes running throughout the festival is consideration and kindness with other events such as poetry readings, ceilidhs and a football tournament.
St Andrew’s Day celebrations are supported by EventScotland who have set up activities in Portree, Raasay and Sligachan as part of the Seall Festival of Small Halls.
Winter Festivals will use funding to highlight Scottish history and culture.
These are more intimate community-based concerts intended to entertain locals and celebrate Scotland.
An exhibition entitled Rebel Orkney will open on Saturday, November 27, in Stromness which highlights the history of the Orkney Islands through artwork and photography.
EventScotland is also receiving government support in the run-up to Hogmanay celebrations taking place in Portree, Stromness, Edinburgh and Stirling.
Funding will also be used to help with events honouring Robert Burns including Burns&Beyond and the Big Burns Supper in January 2022.
Culture Minister Jenny Gilruth said: “Scotland’s Winter Festivals bring a much-needed brightness and joy to the winter darkness and I’m very pleased that the Scottish Government is contributing up to £430,000 to the programme of events.
“The past year has been challenging for everyone so the government is proud to fund a programme of events that bring people together from near and far to showcase our world-class culture and heritage as well as our values of fairness, kindness, inclusivity and empowerment.”
The look at the full programme of activities for St Andrew’s Fair Saturday click here.