Our Linen Stories programme has mined a rich heritage and contemporary design culture throughout Scotland and made links with like minds internationally, since 2018. At its core, Journeys in Design recognises the power of mindful design and creative fellowship for well-being.
Bringing these realities together in a ‘festival’ has particular resonance in Scotland, where creative communities have celebrated together in this way for generations. More ancient wisdoms offer us the notion of ‘ritual’, revisiting to deepen understanding and revalue action for the common good.
Journeys in Design invites you to help create Flax & Linen Festivals Scotland.
Flax and Linen Festival #2, September 2024, Fife
Programme Summary below, more detail at Journeys in Design Eventbrite link here
FLAXFEST24 EXHIBITIONS
Dunfermline 11-28 of September
Our Linen Stories: a contemporary take on Scotland’s noble cloth and ancient fibre crop
Community Gallery, Dunfermline Carnegie Library 10am – 4pm
Making Millie: women and work, your tributes to a hidden linen history
Community Gallery, Dunfermline Carnegie Library 10am – 4pm
Learning with Linen: craft and curriculum, a flax class development
Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum 11am – 3pm
A LINEN PILGRIMS’ WAY THROUGH FIFE
5 – 22 September
St Monans to Ceres 5 to 8 September through the flax fields of Fife
- 2pm Thursday 5 Work/Shop A Feel for Flax Bowhouse
- 2pm Friday 6 Linen Pilgrimage Fertile Fields St Monans
- 2pm Saturday 7 Linen Pilgrimage Saintly Progress St Andrews
- 11am Sunday 8 Sunday in Ceres, in and around Fife Folk Museum
Cupar to Silverburn 12 to 15 September by riverbanks and mills
- 2pm Thursday 12 Work/Shop Dyeing Bright Balgarvie
- 2pm Friday 13 Linen Pilgrimage By the River Eden Strathmiglo
- 2pm Saturday 14 Linen Pilgrimage By the River Leven Markinch
- 11am Sunday 15 Sunday in Silverburn, in and around The Flax Mill
Dysart to Dunfermline 19 to 22 September by coastal paths and ports
- 2pm Thursday 19 Work/Shop Spinning Yarns Linktown
- 2pm Friday 20 a Linen Pilgrimage By Coastal Path Burntisland
- 2pm Saturday 21 Work/Shop Weaving Tales Platform Studios
- 2pm Sunday 22 Linen Pilgrimage Noble Progress Dunfermline
FIVE DAYS IN LINEN CITY DUNFERMLINE
Tuesday 24
- 2pm Work/Shop Your Linen Roots Dunfermline Carnegie Library
- 6pm Twilight Talk Cloth & Community, Make, Mend and Flourish
Wednesday 25
- 11am Dunfermline Millie Meet Up, a Making Millie exhibition event
- 2pm Community Gathering What Next FlaxFest?
Thursday 26
- 11am Community Gathering Natural Fibre Networks
Friday 27
- 9am Flax Class Schools Visit, a Learning with Linen exhibition event (closed)
- 2pm Work/Shop Scutch and Heckle Abbot House
Saturday 28
- 11am Linen Pilgrimage Noble Progress Dunfermline
- 2pm FlaxFest24 Closing Event Weaving Community
When, where and what next for FlaxFest?
We would love your help to make this a regular feature in Scotland’s cultural calendar!
September 2024 Energies met during our first festival in 2021 have enabled a number of new projects and a three year period has allowed interim plans to develop in good time for presentation.
Fife The Kingdom remains full of potential as a host county and the efforts of our co-hosts have been matched by calls from those elsewhere to host future events. Our Linen Stories programme has established good links in other parts of Scotland to broaden our base.
Scotland and Beyond Journeys in Design has liaised directly with organisers of The Linen Biennale in N.Ireland and the Biennale Internationale du Lin de Portneuf in Canada, and we’re keen to learn from those involved in similar events elsewhere. We are working more closely with local and national support agencies and tourist bodies in support of a regular Festival presentation.
You are warmly invited to our Five Gatherings this year in support of future collaboration, and in particular to our Twilight Talk: Cloth and Community 6pm on Tuesday 24 September and our Community Gathering: What Next FlaxFest? 2pm on Wednesday 25 September, both in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries.
Flax and Linen Festival #1, September 2021, Fife
Our Linen Stories programme began in 2018 and our first visit to the Kingdom of Fife was to the Merchant’s House in Laws Close, Kirkcaldy, collaborating with Fifers from across the county to tell their stories. On visiting points of interest to distribute fliers we uncovered real passion for heritage and design all around the Kingdom. We were back in 2019 to the Olympia Arcade and popped up in 2020 in the Kirkcaldy Museum and Gallery. Given the extraordinary extent of flax and linen culture and the enthusiasm of those we have met en route, Fife was the clear choice for our first Festival.
Community engagement in planning and numbers attending exceeded expectations – thank you to all who co-designed Scotland’s first Flax and Linen Festival.