Welcome to Tweed River Festival! Join us in Peebles in the Scottish Borders, on and alongside the River Tweed, for three days of river-focused creative activities – from workshops, film screenings, music and performances, to drawing installations, readings, walks, talks, discussions and more.
The festival’s inaugural edition is the culmination of Connecting Threads’ 2025 programming theme, Watery Commons. Across the year, we’ve been charting connections between the local and the global, the bodily and the systemic, the material and the metaphorical – in recognition that there can be no meaningful thinking about rivers or the commons which is not at the same time political.
Tickets and times
The Tweed River Festival programme has been conceived to facilitate ideas, experiences and conversation across the day. Accordingly, each ticket covers your participation for a full day. We encourage visitors to try to attend for the full day they book for, if possible.
Each day’s programme involves simultaneous workshops across several sites. We will send out a form closer to the festival so that visitors who wish to do so can book into specific activities in advance. You can also just book your day ticket and go the flow on the day.
All tickets for Tweed River Festival are on a pay-what-you-can basis. We believe that everyone should be able to attend our programme. Paying for your ticket(s) will help support our continued activities.
Access
Please see the access info page on our website for details on Peebles Burgh Hall, Peebles Gallery and individual workshops.
DAY 2: CARRYING, CROSSING, COMMONING
Focusing on community and the river catchment, we think about the river as both boundary and connector, shaping cultures and landscapes.
PROGRAMME
10.00am: venue open for refreshments
10.30am: welcome
11.30am – 1pm: morning workshops
Choose from:
- Carrying the Tweed - short film and presentation by artist Emily Cropton, responding to Ursula Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction in relation to the Tweed catchment
- From the Ground Up - make temporary structures (full day) with artist Anne Waggot Knott, examining the implications of asserting rights or ownership over parts of the river.
- Learn to make paper using Himalayan Balsam with artist Lucy Baxandall.
- Watergrams – drop-in cameraless photography workshops in a gazebo darkroom with artist-photographer Zoe Hamill.
1pm – 2pm: lunch
Connecting Threads are providing lunch. Please let us know any allergies or dietary requirements when you book.
2pm – 3.30pm: afternoon workshops
Choose from:
- Drift State - drawing workshop with artist Anna Chapman Parker, using a digital microscope and live projection to examine phytoplankton from the River Tweed
- From the Ground Up - make temporary structures (full day) with artist Anne Waggot Knott, examining the implications of asserting rights or ownership over parts of the river.
- Learn to make paper using Himalayan Balsam with artist Lucy Baxandall.
- Watergrams – drop-in cameraless photography workshops in a gazebo darkroom with artist-photographer Zoe Hamill.
3.30pm – 4.30pm: gathering
The day concludes with an opportunity for everyone to come together and share stories, learnings and ideas from the day.
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7.30pm: film night
An evening of film and discussion, centred on the premiere of Jessie Growden’s Bodies in Water (2025). Book evening tickets separately.
