27 January 2021
We invite you to share your memories of the Arbroath Abbey Pageants.
Join us online at one of our zoom group conversations:
Wednesday 27 January at 11am [zoom registration link]
Tuesday 2 February at 6.30pm
Thursday 4 February at 1.30pm
The online events are open to everyone who remembers the Pageants between 1947-2005 and would like to contribute to the project.
Please sign up either via Facebook messenger or over email to: info@arbroathfestival.com
Register for Wednesday 27 January at 11am via zoom here.
We are collecting the responses in a variety of formats including written, over the telephone and through online community conversations.
If you would like to contribute in another way you can either email or telephone 01241 656 124.
Arbroath 2020+1 Festival is preparing an exhibition looking back at the Arbroath Abbey Pageants that took place 18 times between 1947 – 2005. Its status as the most frequently staged Pageant in the UK is to date unbeaten, it became a trailblazer for technical innovation, often years ahead of other such community spectacles.
The Making of a Pageant 1947-2005 is an exhibition of photos, props, objects and memories currently being curated by Arbroath 2020+1 with Angus Alive Museums & Galleries and Archives to open in April 2021 in the Arbroath Art Gallery in Arbroath Library.
Exhibition organisers Cicely Farrer (Programme Manager, Hospitalfield) and Pippa Martin (Creative Producer, Place Partnership) are now seeking memories from the people of Arbroath who may have been attending the pageant as a spectator or participating.
We are looking for a range of voices and experiences of the Pageants to respond to a series of questions. You may still live in Arbroath or you may have moved elsewhere in the world – we’re excited that the online sphere might bring more voices to this project. Your responses may find their way into the exhibition itself or in the label text around the exhibition or as an audio element of the exhibition. Everyone who contributes will be given a name credit in the exhibition.
We’ll be asking you about your memories of the preparations, attending, the sounds and sights, your opinions of the Pageants in relation to the local area, the personalities of the Pageants and if you held onto any mementos or souvenirs. You can come online on your own or with friends, family, or even through reconnecting with people you attended with.