Every summer we hold the Gallowgate Festival at St Margaret’s.
This is a church / community festival which helps us raise funds by running various stalls and catering for the public in the Comper Centre. The last few years have seen us selling fish and chips along with the usual teas, coffees and sandwiches.
The church and gardens are open for visitors to enjoy the beauty and tranquility. In recent years, the Flower Festival has been a welcome addition, with the church artfully decorated with floral displays arranged by some of the ladies of the congregation.
Last year, our visitors were given the added treat of Ed Jones our organist and George Chittenden from St Andrew’s Cathedral expertly playing the organ continuously for more than two hours.
This is a great opportunity to extend our outreach into the local community and has proved a very popular event for many years now.
As the Gallowgate festival falls in the late July/early August period, we have been lucky to have musicians and dancers from the International Youth Festival along to perform for us in the Hall and in the yard outside the church, as well as celebrities from the ‘Tartan Day’ celebrations, who have attended our ceilidhs in the evening.
This year’s Gallowgate Festival ceilidh was attended by Shaun Batty the STV weatherman, and Michelle McManus, singer and presenter of STV’s ‘The Hour’ programme.
Previous guests have been Big Brother winner, Cameron Stout and ‘Braveheart’ actor Davie McKay, and some of the ‘River City’ cast.