Festival 2024
The To Absent Friends festival took place across Scotland from 1-7 November 2024.
It was an opportunity to remember, to tell stories, to celebrate and to reminisce about people we love who have died. To Absent Friends, a People’s Festival of Storytelling and Remembrance is an opportunity to revive lost traditions and create new ones.
Below is a list of the events that took place.
Memoir Writing Workshop
Organised by North Berwick Coastal Community Connections
2 November, 10:30am -12:30pm
North Berwick Library
This event is open to the public. Please register in advance.
Following the success of her session with NBCCC last year, author Catherine Simpson brings her fantastic memoir writing workshop back to North Berwick.
All of our events are free, but ticketed, and open to everyone. To book your place
please email: admin@nbc-communityconnections.org.
Photo credit: Thought Catalog via Unsplash
A Day to Remember
Organised by Families Outside
Saturday 2 November 2024, 11am - 2pm
Glasgow (venue is fully accessible)
This event is not open to the public.
Families bereaved through a death in prison often grieve alone – a ‘disenfranchised grief’ unsupported in wider society. This remembrance event brings these families together through this shared experience to commemorate their family members through mutual support and without judgement.
Families are asked to bring something that reminds them of their loved one, using this as a tool to talk about the family member who passed away, what they liked to do, and what they enjoyed. The comfort and safety of joining together with people untied through this utterly unique experience of grief aims to provide support, positive memories, and closure. The event will end with lunch for everyone to mingle and chat.
This event is supported by a To Absent Friends small grant.
For more information or to join this event, contact admin@familiesoutside.org.uk.
For more information about Families Outside and the support we offer, visit www.familiesoutside.org.uk.
Photo credit: Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik.com
Trees for Trustees
Organised by FEAT Trading CIC
Friday 1st November, 12-2pm
Silverburn Park, Leven, Fife
This event is for the Silverburn Park community.
FEAT Trading CIC have taken on the management of Silverburn Park for community benefit and to restore it to former glories after years of neglect. On Friday 1st November from 12-2 pm we will pay respects and acknowledge the efforts of three long-serving volunteer Trustees who are sadly no longer with us. Brian Robertson, Rose Duncan and Gordon Mitchell were instrumental in shaping a vision for the Park, restoring it to former glories under community ownership after years of neglect.
Friends, family and colleagues are invited to the Park to plant a tree in the walled garden for each our absent friends, reminisce about them over a lunch provided by our social enterprise café and hear more about our ongoing work to improve the Park’s gardens, woodlands and the restoration of the historic B-listed flax mill.
This event is supported by a To Absent Friends small grant.
RSVP to info@silverburnpark.co.uk www.facebook.com/silverburnpark
Image credit: Courtesy of FEAT Trading CIC
Trees of Remembrance
Organised by Battlefield Community Project
1st-7th November 2024
Finns Place, 167 Ledard Rd, Glasgow G42 9QU and Cambuslang Parish Church, 1 Arnott Way, Cambuslang, Glasgow G72 7JQ
These events are open to the public.
We are helping to mark To Absent Friends Week this year by giving people in our communities the opportunity to remember someone special. Located at Finns Place in Battlefield and Cambuslang Parish Church, there will be mini trees available to hang names and stories of your special person. These will be on display for the entire week, and culminate in the creation of memory books which will include all of our tree “leaves”.
You can either visit the trees in person, or if you would prefer you can email CambuslangDeathCafe@outlook.com with a name and a few sentences which can be added to the tree on your behalf. You can use this email to request leaves to be added to either tree.
This event is supported by a To Absent Friends small grant.
Photo credit: Jenny Watt
An Evening of Conversation
Organised by North Berwick Coastal Community Connections
1 November, 6:30pm - 9:00pm
North Berwick Golf Club
This event is open to the public. Please register in advance.
Join author Catherine Simpson, Dr. Deborah Ritchie and John MacFadyen for a discussion on “The Unspoken Aspects of Parting: Grief, Death & The Unexpected”, chaired by Mike Falconer of Saltire Radio.
All of our events are free, but ticketed, and open to everyone. To book your place
please email: admin@nbc-communityconnections.org.
Photo credit: Courtesy of NBCCC
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