A celebration of community landowners
17 October – 2 November 2025
Community Land Festival celebrates community landowners (communities that own land or buildings) and their achievements.
This will be Scotland’s 7th Community Land Festival. The celebration began in 2018 as Community Land Week. In 2023, based on community feedback, the festival was extended from one week to two and under the new banner of Community Land Festival.
This year, the celebrations returns from 17 October to 2 November 2025.
Participation in Community Land Festival is open to all geographically based communities in Scotland who already own land or buildings.
The Festival is coordinated by Community Land Scotland and the Scottish Government Community Land Team, but we also work closely with other membership organisations that support community owners of land and buildings.
Event Submission Timeline:
- 1 July 2025: Open Call for Events begins
- 15 July 2025: Initial bursary allocation (this process wiill continue on a weekly basis until all funding is allocated)
- 1 August 2025: Initial event listings live on website / festival boxes begin to be mailed to participating communities
The Community Land Festival Fringe
Groups who are not yet community landowners but who are on the path to ownership are welcome to participate in the Community Land Festival Fringe. This satellite series highlights and supports outreach and engagement. In addition to the promotion and press support that all Community Land Festival events receive, communities participating in the Fringe will attend a briefing session on how to programme and run effective community engagement activities, and will receive support in developing their ideas.
Get Involved in Community Land Festival
Frequently asked questions:
Who can take part?
Community Land Festival is open to geographically-based community organisations that already own land or buildings in Scotland. You will need to demonstrate that you have public liability insurance.
Is any type of event acceptable?
We’d like to hear a little bit about your plans before we approve you to take part, but on the whole, we’d encourage you to be creative with your event planning.
The type of events communities have run in previous years include: walks around community land, celebratory events such as ceilidhs and tea parties, teddy bears’ picnics, fun days for children, reminiscence events, pumpkin festivals, ribbon cutting ceremonies and community meals.
You can also get together with other community landowners to coordinate events on a local or regional basis. Please let us know if you’d like some assistance with the coordination.
As a host group, what will you be expected to do?
If you are hosting an event as part of Community Land Festival, we will expect you to:
- Provide full information about the event you running, including where and when it will take place by mid-September
- Provide Community Land Scotland with text for the Community Land Festival page on its website by mid-September
- Take part in our "Tell Your Community Story in 60 Seconds" activity by submitting a short, mobile-phone-recorded video that shares your community’s story. This will be added to the 100years.scot archive. (Full details in the Guidance)
- Provide a copy of your public liability insurance before claiming your bursary (if applicable)
- Use the Community Land Festival logo in your event publicity
- Promote your event locally through your own media contacts, social media and local communities
- Fill out Community Land Festival evaluation form after completion of event
We may offer you the opportunity to be featured in our national or local press releases, but this will be up to you
What support will you receive?
All participating organisations will also receive the following:
- Inclusion in national Community Land Festival promotion
- Listing on our Community Land Festival web page
- Community Land Festival promotional materials and support
- A press pack to help you get your story into your local papers
Is there funding support?
We have thirty £300 bursaries for Community Land Festival, and ten £150 bursaries for the Festival Fringe. The purpose of these bursaries is to help contribute towards the cost of running your event. These bursaries will be allocated starting 19 July. Our considerations in allocating support include:
* Community need in delivering Community Land Festival programming; and
* Geographic spread of communities throughout Scotland.
You do not need to be a member of Community Land Scotland to receive bursary support. Decisions on bursary allocation will be made by Community Land Scotland.
Following the initial bursary allocation, bursaries will continue to be distributed weekly until we have reached capacity.
There are still bursaries available.
How to participate
Please fill in the Event Submission form online.
You can provide full details at this time, or, if you are still fleshing out your idea, simply tell us as much as you can. After submission of the form, you will have the option to save your submission. We recommend that you do this, as it will allow you to refer back to what you have told us, or update your submission if needed.
Please note that if you put in an expression of interest, you can change your mind, it is not a binding agreement. It is also to give us an idea of which groups are interested and to help us plan.
Briefing sessions:
Want more information about Community Land Festival or have questions about the process? We will be holding online briefing sessions in July and August (dates coming soon). To be notified of when these will be schedules, please email Meg.