Craigmillar Festival Society

[3] Helen Crummy, a local mother, asked the headteacher of Peffermill Primary School if her son could have lessons to learn to play the violin.

"[4] Crummy joined the Peffermill School Mothers Club and she wanted to showcase that the Craigmillar children had talent to develop and decided to put on a festival.

[3] Peffermill School Mothers Club responded by knocking on doors, pulling out local talent, and staging a People's Festival of music, drama, and the arts.

[5] As a result of this success, the annual Craigmillar Festival was created and it was central to transforming the area's local and art and music scene.

The CFS started with five paid neighbourhood workers, who would be a point of contact for advice and support in the Craigmillar community, and they also made referrals to social services, for example.

In early 1970 CFS also began publishing a newsletter – Craigmillar Festival News – which, after a somewhat uncertain start, grew into a monthly local newspaper which continued with few interruptions until its final edition cover-dated March 2000, surviving for almost exactly 30 years.

The principles of the CFS were instituted in a Comprehensive Plan for Action in 1976, a document that became a standard guide for social community enterprise; one that placed art and culture at the centre of regeneration.

The beginning of the annual Festival was marked each year by a political musical theatre performance written by local people about major social issues affecting them.

At the moment, the Society runs an innovative 'YtE Unify' scheme, the first of its kind, I believe, in Scotland, where we bring both adult and youth trainees together in workshops and projects.

[10] The society also has links with Professor Eric Trist and The Tavistock Institute, Billy Connolly, Richard Demarco, Anne Lorne Gillies, Joan Bakewell, Michael Marra, and Bill Paterson.

Founder Rachel Cloughton explained that "the project aims to preserve and celebrate the area's pioneering history and create a resource that is locally led and nationally significant.