The people and stories which have shaped Forres through generations will take centre stage on Saturday 26 September as the town celebrates its heritage during Culture Day.
The free event at Forres Tolbooth runs from 11am until 4pm as part of the wider Findhorn Bay Festival, with exhibitions, performances and activities exploring the community’s past and its hopes for the future.
Among the highlights will be work from the Forres Conservation and Heritage Scheme, a £3.3 million programme putting the town’s heritage at the heart of efforts to regenerate Forres.
The five year programme is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic Environment Scotland alongside other public investment.
Culture Day will give visitors the chance to discover some of the people who lived, worked and built their lives around Forres High Street through photographs and personal stories.
The High Street Histories project draws on photography collections held by Forres Heritage Trust to document and preserve the history of the street at the heart of the Forres Conservation Area.
Rather than looking at buildings simply as bricks and stone, the photographs connect familiar streets and shopfronts with generations of people who made them part of everyday life.
Another project, Stories from the Shadows, will use immersive storytelling to bring some of those lives back into view and introduce visitors to characters from the town’s past.
The exhibition will eventually move online, with further exhibitions planned around the Forres area and a ten part podcast series also being developed from the project.
Visitors on Saturday will also be able to comment on revised interpretation plans for the wider heritage programme, giving local people an opportunity to influence how the history of Forres is presented and shared.
Moray Council Leader Councillor Kathleen Robertson said:
“We encourage as many people as possible to visit on Saturday 26 September to experience the rich heritage of Forres and the community.
“Celebrating heritage is an important part of keeping the history of any town alive, and the Forres Conservation and Heritage Scheme aims to remember the past, while also looking forward to a vibrant and sustainable town centre of the future”.
Culture Day forms part of the Findhorn Bay Festival, which runs from 24 September until 4 October and brings together arts, culture, performance and community events across the area.
Forres has centuries of history written into its streets, but much of the character of any town comes from the lives lived behind its doors and the memories passed between generations.
Saturday offers the chance to bring some of those stories back into the light while asking what the next chapter for the town should look like.
