The Traditional Arts and Culture Fund, previously known as Tasgadh, is now open for applications (19 January 2026). Gaelic Language Version The fund, administered by TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland), offers small grants of up to £1,200 to artists, community groups, and grassroots organisations working across Scotland’s traditional music, song, storytelling, dance, crafts, indigenous … Continued

Multiple sell-outs and packed houses were enjoyed by audiences and participants at this year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival (22 October to 1 November), which is supported by Multi-Year funding from Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government’s Festivals EXPO Fund. The festival’s programme, themed under ‘Lights of the North’, included live storytelling, music, art, and song.  … Continued

2025 was another successful year for the Pomegranates Festival, which ran from 25th to 30th April. The packed five-day programme of traditional dance, saw ticket sales up by 40% on 2024; a sold-out Ceilidh Plus event mixing Scottish, Hungarian and Polish social dancing; and a packed house for Charlotte McLean’s new not for glory dance … Continued

Review by Catherine Coutts As Greek dancer Vassia Bouchagiar-Walker moves lithely onto the floor at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, her task is not an easy one. The audience – largely Scottish traditional music afficionados – are there for the preview of Mairi Campbell’s Living Stone exhibition. They have already been sitting for forty minutes on … Continued

At the heart of our Pomegranates Festival, once again, is the intensive day of professional development workshops led by Scottish artists and creative migrants based in Scotland. This year the line-up includes 12 trad dance workshops taught by 14 dance artists including Evie Waddell, Nadia Khattab, Niki & Yangyang, Lara Russo & Inesa Vėlavičiūtė, Gica … Continued

* TueSDAY 22 AugUST 2023 9:45pm the Scottish Storytelling Centre Edinburgh part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023 £12 (£10) BOOK NOW 2 for 1 offer with FRINGE FRIEND MEMbership BOOK NOW GROUP DISCOUNT WHEN YOU ORDER 10 OR MORE TICKETS BOOK NOW #thistlesandsunflowers #edfringe #pomegranates PRESS PACK DOWNLOAD Thistles & Sunflowers ProgrammE DOWNLOAD   Join … Continued

How could we support communities of New Scots to shape and share their stories? As one of the three founding members of TRACS, Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland initiated To Ukraine with Love – a project aimed at supporting the community of displaced people from Ukraine in Edinburgh to shape and share the story of … Continued

Review by Inesa Vėlavičiūtė A tribute to UNESCO’s International Dance Day and as part of Edinburgh’s Tradfest, the Pomegranates festival  premiered in 2022, celebrating traditional dances from around the world and explored their connections to contemporary hip-hop. Curated by the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, a varied and inspiring programme was put together for the … Continued

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country. I live in the city of Toronto, one of the greatest crossroads cities in the world. It’s in the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee people, the First People to live here before others came. The Toronto Storytelling Festival, which began in 1978, has become … Continued

The First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, issued an open letter to EU citizens living in Scotland on 5 April 2019. Following up from her original open letter in 2016, the message of welcome remains, stating: ‘Scotland is your home, you are welcome here, and you are valued. You play a crucial role in Scotland’s … Continued