Festival 2025
The To Absent Friends festival takes place across Scotland from 1-7 November 2025.
It is 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 taking place around Scotland and online.
Cafe of Reminiscence
Organised by Heart of Yew Ceremonies
Loanhead Library, Loanhead Centre George Ave, Loanhead EH20 9LA
Wednesday 5 November, 6:30-8pm
This activity is open to the public. Please register in advance.
Community celebrant Emily Porth will facilitate this informal Cafe of Reminiscence. A Café of Reminiscence is an opportunity to share stories and memories of the people we have loved who have died, in a welcoming environment over tea and biscuits. It can be held among friends, but can work even better among strangers.
Bring a photo of your loved one and a mug. Free to attend.
Please register on Eventbrite or by email (hello@emilyporth.co.uk) so we have enough tea & biscuits.
Absent Friends & Family
Organised by Toryglen Community Base
Toryglen Community Base, 179 Prospecthill Circus, G42 0LA
Wednesday 5 November, 11am-1pm
This activity is open to the public.
Come along, share your memories over a free cuppa & breakfast roll.
There will be an opportunity to plant some commemorative bulbs or hang a message on our remembrance tree.
To Absent Friends - a meaningful event of remembrance!
Organised by Fuze Ceremonies and Bishopbriggs Crematorium and Westerleigh Group
Bishopbriggs Crematorium, Crosshill Road, Bishopbriggs, G64 2PZ
Tuesday 4 November, 5.30-7.30pm (pre-event welcome cuppa 5.30-6pm) 6-7.30pm (To Absent Friends Event)
This activity is open to the public. Please register in advance.
We’re honoured to be taking part in this year’s To Absent Friends festival, which takes place across Scotland from the 1st to 7th of November 2025. The festival gives people a reason to remember, to tell stories, to celebrate and to reminisce about people we love who have died.
Join Fuze Ceremonies, alongside Bishopbriggs Crematorium and Westerleigh Group, for a meaningful event of remembrance, where we’ll celebrate the lives of loved ones who are no longer with us.
The event will include:
- A pre-event Scottish piper warm welcome and chat over a ‘cuppa’
- Event introductions for our Fuze Foundation Chair, Morag Webster and Catrina Murphy, Manager at Bishopbriggs Crematorium
- A playlist of music and a slideshow of pictorial memories submitted by attendees
- Creative workshops of hands-on remembrance activities
- A live musical interlude from our talented celebrants and friends
- A tour of the crematorium and crematory, if desired
- Information on memorialisation and lasting legacies, along with ways to get support
This event is open to anyone from the surrounding community and beyond to attend, take part in and remember loved ones in a happy way that honours the part they played in your lives.
Let’s come together to honour memories, share stories, and connect through reflection, music, and creativity.
Register your free place on Eventbrite here.
Blogs:
and
https://www.bishopbriggscrematorium.co.uk/events/event.php?s=2025-11-04-to-absent-friends
Remembrance Walk
Organised by Fleur Hoole, celebrant
Newhailes House & Gardens, Musselburgh
Tuesday 4 November, 10am - 11:30am
This activity is open to the public. Please register in advance.
A gentle wander and an opportunity to remember, to tell stories and to celebrate people we love who have died. Followed by a cosy cuppa in the Glasshouse behind the Stables Courtyard.
This activity will begin with a walk in their grounds with a few pauses for reflection - one to read a short poem, one to write names onto leaves to float downstream or scatter into the wind, and the last one to hold a short 5-senses meditation in the shell grotto - with the opportunity to add a shell to the grotto, which is a remembrance monument in the grounds of Newhailes House. This will be followed by a cuppa and a chance to chat in the Glasshouse.
Celebrant Fleur Hoole is supported by the National Trust for Scotland to hold this activity.
Book your free place here.
Creative Workshop for Reminiscence
Organised by Duncan Place Community Hub & Enterprise
4 Duncan Place, Leith EH6 8HW
Thursday 4th November, 7pm-8:30pm
This activity is open to the public. Please register in advance.
Duncan Place have organised a couple of free events as part of the To Absent Friends festival, with one of them being this creative workshop.
Join us in a relaxed space to make an artwork, story or poem inspired by someone you care about who has died.
Find out more and register your free space on Eventbrite here.
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