Annual festival floats ideas for Capital to make most of canal

The fourth annual canal festival, at Lochrin Basin will be opened tomorrow by council canal champion, Gordon Munro, and includes a raft race, stalls and canoeing taster sessions.

City leaders said the event, sponsored by the local authority’s physical development support team as part of ongoing work on its canal strategy, would help animate Edinburgh’s waterways and involve community groups in the area.

Councillor Munro said: “The festival is there to celebrate a unique resource and really shows the potential that the canal has for personal and private enjoyment – not just for those people living round about it but for the city itself.

“Even prior to implementing some of the ideas in the council’s canal strategy, this festival shows what is possible and what can be built on to make the canal bigger and better for everybody – ranging from light-hearted ideas like the raft race to how the canal can be used as a commercial resource.”