Free family festival coming to Vogrie Park

A free, open air, family festival of music, comedy and theatre is coming to Vogrie Country Park on September 11 and 12.

Rowanbank: Environmental Arts & Education social enterprise. Innovative, family-friendly events, workshops and magical outdoor experiences.

Trotwork Events and the Blundabus are delighted to present (in collaboration with Midlothian Council and Creative Scotland), Vogrie Pogrie, a family-friendly festival taking place entirely outdoors.

Free activities will run from 11am - 7pm on the Saturday and Sunday with performances from acts including musical theatre production Colonel Mustard & The Big Bad Wolf, Scottish comedian Phil Kay, environmental arts and education social enterprise Rowanbank, Swallow The Sea Caravan Theatre, Lucy Hopkins, and arts collective Bam Jam.

Vogrie Pogrie creative director Bob Slayer hopes the festival will bring joy to locals and help the creative arts industry recover from the pandemic.

Colonel Mustard & The Big Bad Wolf: musical theatre production from the frontman of one of Scotland’s most exciting festival bands.

He said: “Our aim is to bring things into the park which we can share. It’s free all day. One of the important things for us it to make it as accessible as possible for everybody. Which is why we are working on a bus service so people without a car can access the park.

"The whole festival is outside. We put it together with that in mind.

"Part of this festival is to help us come out of the pandemic, to give acts something to do and get going again. We have done a couple of shows at the festival this year and it was interesting to see performers stepping back into it after a while off due to Covid.”

Other attractions at Vogrie Pogrie include The BlundaBus – delivering creatively and commercially successful immersive arts experiences, and interactive theatre company Trotwork Events.

“The acts and the stages have been chosen with social distancing in mind, and it’s obviously outside,” added Bob.

"Yes there are challenges, the biggest challenge is that it’s such a short run-up to it, but it’s a manageable size and there isn’t much else on at the moment.

"People are responding well to it. It’s going to be magical. There are some wonderful acts on the bill.

"We want to come back and grow it over time, making the festival more accessible for all folk in Midlothian.

"It’s quite a different festival, it’s an eclectic mix, and it’s free. Fingers crossed for the weather now!”

In addition to this free weekend daytime event, tickets are available for the Woodland Cabaret on Saturday evening, and weekend camping in the park (Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening). See: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/vogriepogrie/565141.