Tweed River Festival: Day 1

Welcome to Tweed River Festival!

Join us in Peebles in the Scottish Borders, on and alongside the River Tweed, for three days of river-focused creative activities – from workshops, film screenings, music and performances, to drawing installations, readings, walks, talks, discussions and more.

The festival’s inaugural edition is the culmination of Connecting Threads’ 2025 programming theme, Watery Commons. Across the year, we’ve been charting connections between the local and the global, the bodily and the systemic, the material and the metaphorical – in recognition that there can be no meaningful thinking about rivers or the commons which is not at the same time political.

Tickets and times
The Tweed River Festival programme has been conceived to facilitate ideas, experiences and conversation across the day. Accordingly, each ticket covers your participation for a full day. We encourage visitors to try to attend for the full day they book for, if possible.

Each day’s programme involves simultaneous workshops across several sites. We will send out a form closer to the festival so that visitors who wish to do so can book into specific activities in advance. You can also just book your day ticket and go with the flow on the day.

All tickets for Tweed River Festival are on a pay-what-you-can basis. We believe that everyone should be able to attend our programme. Paying for your ticket(s) will help support our continued activities.

Access
Please see the Connecting Threads website for detailed access info for Peebles Burgh Hall, Peebles Gallery and individual workshops.

DAY 1: WHERE WE BEGIN
The first day of Tweed River Festival offers the opportunity of gathering around stories of the Tweed, and reflecting on our personal connections to its mythology and history.

DAY 1 PROGRAMME:
10.00am: venue open for refreshments

10.30am: welcome

11.30am – 1pm: morning workshops

Choose from:

• Finding ways across - printmaking workshop with artist Georgie Fay, connecting ancient river crossings to rituals of reciprocal gift-giving.
• Terra Incognita - map sharing and mobile photography walk with artist Kat Gollock, as part of their 2025 collaboration with Zoe Hamill, compiling untold stories of the middle Tweed. The project culminates with the launch of a new artist-made map as part of the workshop.
• Walk and swim: riverside walk and swimming in the River Tweed facilitated by the Connecting Threads programming team.

1pm – 2pm: lunch
Connecting Threads are providing lunch. Please let us know any allergies or dietary requirements when you book.

2pm – 5pm: afternoon workshops

Choose from:

• Song sharing - group song-learning with singer-songwriter Miwa Nagato-Apthorp, sharing a new composition that combines ancient animal mythologies with contemporary Tweed experiences.
• Tweed conversations - poetry and printmaking workshop with poet Craig Aitchison and artists Rosemary Everett and Georgie Fay, celebrating the launch of Tweed, a new book-length poem in Scots.
• The Dreaming Tweed - sound installation by singer-songwriter Sam Gillespie.
• Off-site excursion to Tweedsmuir, to include a riverside workshop with artist Kate Cohen.

5pm – 6pm: gathering
The day concludes with an opportunity for everyone to come together and share stories, learnings and ideas from the day.

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7pm: Reflections on the River
An evening of music, storytelling and song with Kirsty Law, Sam Gillespie and Miwa Nagato-Apthorp. Book evening tickets separately.