Highlands and Islands Climate Festival is a showcase for local action
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Activities ranging from ceilidhs and picnics to clothes-swapping sessions have been taking place across the Highlands and Islands during September in a celebration of climate action.
The Highlands and Islands Climate Festival has seen events as far afield as the Isle of Canna in the Inner Hebrides to Bressay in Shetland, and its final week coincides with the nationwide Scotland’s Climate Week running from September 25 to October 1.
The festival has been brought to the region by a network of community organisations with coordination from the Highlands and Islands Climate Hub.
Following successful climate festivals in the Highlands and Orkney in 2022, a group of like-minded members of the Highlands and Islands Climate Hub wanted to take forward a wide-ranging, month-long festival celebrating "localism" and positive work in communities.
The festival has seen more than 100 events take part in all corners of the Highlands and Islands, encouraging people to "think local, share local, grow local and eat local".
Joan Lawrie, hub manager for the Highlands and Islands Climate Hub, said: “In designing the Highlands and Islands Climate Festival we started with a working group of eight hub member organisations. That soon grew to some 55 organisations funded to deliver events throughout the festival, with many more community organisations and agencies joining in.
"We’ve delivered over 100 events from September 1, engaging and celebrating the work that communities across the region are carrying out. By creating a theme of thinking local we’ve celebrated local food and drink, local businesses and community organisations while sending out a message of 'come together within your communities, celebrate, share and be local'.
"These positive climate action messages help people to understand that by taking small actions we can all be part of something bigger in being more sustainable and using the resources we have available locally.”
Scotland’s Climate Week is a Scottish Government initiative celebrating climate action throughout the country.
Events being held this week include the premiere of Climate Action: Highlands and Islands, a film created by the Highlands and Islands Climate Hub with film-maker Cameron J Mackay, showcasing the work of communities from Shetland to Lochaber, taking place in Fort William on Wednesday (September 27).
On Saturday, communities from Nairn to Shetland are holding community picnics. Highland Good Food Partnership and the H&I Climate Hub are encouraging people to "hearst and gaither’ to enjoy food from the region.
