VisitScotland has teamed up with the National Trust for Scotland, Royal Botanic Gardens, Peebles; Cambo Estate, Fife; and Floors Castle, Kelso; to introduce Scotland’s first ever National Snowdrop Festival.
The Festival will take place between 1st February and 11th March 2007 and is aimed at both increasing awareness of Scottish Gardens and encouraging visitors to visit gardens during the winter months. The Festival is the brainchild of Catherine Erskine from Cambo Estate, who has run a Snowdrop event every year since 2001 at Cambo Estate, resulting in increased visitor numbers and revenue for her garden and local area, one year raising £9,000 in an honesty box alone, indicative of the potential for visitor numbers and revenue for local areas for this type of event.
As a group we are looking to recruit other gardens across Scotland, which are: open between 1st February and 11th March, display at least 1 acre of snowdrops, and able to co-ordinate a small programme of activity around the event (such as photography/art exhibition of local artists’ work, bulb/plant sale, inviting speakers on Snowdrops). We are also looking for support from accommodation providers interested in increasing their winter visitor numbers and revenue and able to provide a special offer or discount for all visitors booking rooms for use during the Snowdrop Festival period, in return for online and offline Marketing and PR assistance.
Funding for the event has been allocated by VisitScotland to assist in the payment of speakers, artists, story tellers and any other activity that will support the creation of a National Snowdrop Festival Programme for Scotland. Marketing support for the event will also be available from VisitScotland in the form of online and offline ac tivity including e-blasts, press releases, posters, flyers and a map of all gardens involved in the Festival to encourage trailing from one garden to the next. PR plans are already in place through Cambo Estate, with support from VisitScotland where necessary, nearer to the event.
Should the event be successful in its objective of increasing visitor numbers and revenue to selected local areas during a traditionally quiet time, there may be other opportunities to run events such as rhododendron, rose or bluebell festivals throughout Scotland. Should you be interested in taking part in other festivals, please state this in your correspondence to Felicity Madelin, indicating your garden’s speciality and the time of year that your garden is at its best.
A planning meeting for gardens interested in being involved in the Festival is scheduled for Thursday 7th September at 10 o’clock in VisitScotland’s offices at Ocean Point One, Edinburgh to discuss potential Festival activity in each local area and ways in which to co-ordinate a national programme. Should you wish to be involved or you would like further information or inspiration on how you can take part in this exciting venture, please contact Felicity Madelin on 0131 472 2282 or by email: felicity.madelin@visitscotland.com by 15th August.
