From the muddy fields of Glastonbury to the busy streets of Edinburgh, the environment a festival takes place in matters almost as much as the acts in its programme. And it’s fair to say that when Kresanna Aigner sits down to curate the Findhorn Bay Festival, she’s working with a backdrop as beautiful, unique and welcoming as anything you’ll see on stage. Every two years, Aigner’s small but mighty team takes over town halls, community centres and churches in Findhorn and Forres, as well as stretching out into venues further afield. But whether you’re enjoying interactive artworks in a local park, traditional music in a village hall, or theatre for families in a pop-up venue, one thing remains constant: you feel part of a community. 

Lasting ten days, the 2026 festival was an accessible mix of live music, street performances, visual art, theatre and dance. A packed line-up catering for newborns upwards, with some events extending an invitation to get involved while others allowed audiences to just sit back and admire the skill and talent on display. In the final weekend alone, a myriad of performance styles came together, including a remarkable celebration of Scottish and Irish Gaelic. Joined by Zoë Conway, Éamon Doorley and John Mc Intyre from across the water, Julie Fowlis introduced us to the Allt project, which takes a deep dive into traditional Celtic music and song, and resurfaces with gold. These consummate musicians sang not a word of English during the entire show, yet it’s fair to say that non-Gaelic speakers felt every nuance, every emotion.

Hamish Napier, the festival’s busy musician-in-residence, also filled Findhorn’s gorgeous Universal Hall with traditional music for the world premiere of The Hill. This multi-layered collection of reels, jigs, airs and more celebrates the mountains surrounding the River Spey, and Napier’s witty introductions of trips taken to gather inspiration made the music even more evocative.

Deiseil Airson Dannsa’s Dancing In Time also paid homage to Scotland’s rich cultural heritage, via a lively and informative blend of storytelling, music and dance. Long-time friends Amy Geddes and Alison Carlyle are both adept stepdancers, with Geddes also providing fiddle accompaniment. Between them, they explain how stepdance once lost its foothold in Scotland, taken to Cape Breton in Canada during the mass emigration that followed the Highland clearances. Slowly, it came back, retaught by those who returned and this intimate duet, performed on a bespoke hard wooden platform, is truly a love letter to the form.

And proving this festival can upscale and downsize with the best of them, Friday night’s village hall stepdance paved the way for a large aerial dance work on Saturday. Situated in the beautiful grounds of Brodie Castle, the vast structure built for The Flying Ceilidh was a site to behold all by itself. Strung with chairs, fiddles and violin cases, the steel scaffolding erected by All Or Nothing Dance Theatre was nothing if not ambitious. The performance itself, delivered by both highly skilled aerial artists and local learners, needs a little shaping but is already an exciting spectacle. Dressed to kill in an array of tartan, the dancers climb, spin and stretch high above ground, while down below musician Evie Waddell and others help keep the energy high. Switching between a choreographed show and a family-friendly interactive ceilidh (an absolute blast for all involved), this new production has joy at its heart. And, with a little dramaturgical tightening, could be very special indeed.

As any creator of work for children and families knows, to hit the mark you need to consider everyone in the room. And three festival shows aimed at young audiences did exactly that. Created by Starcatchers and Frozen Charlotte, every single aspect of Island was made with both parent/carer and baby in mind. From the delicate light orbs that change colour and, crucially, can be picked up by tiny ones, to the soft flooring and beanbags, this is an environment built to relax in. Over the course of 40 minutes, babies explored the space, fed, fell asleep, turned their heads inquisitively towards the live harp-playing, or watched two dancers climb onto a bed, wriggle on the floor beside them and (miraculously) danced around without ever making contact. Meanwhile the grown-ups switched between enjoying their baby’s responses, to enjoying the performance themselves, during a gentle respite from the wonderful but challenging chaos of new parenthood.

When you hear adults and children laughing during a show, often it’s not at the same thing. Innocent and knowing responses might sound similar, but it’s not a genuinely shared experience. Which is one of the things that makes MoonSlide’s new show Soup! so incredibly enjoyable. Regardless of age, the hoots of laughter this piece elicits are all for the same reason: the hilarious movement and language created and performed by Suzi Cunningham and Alex McCabe. They’re here to make a soup (or ‘boobah’ as they call it), and need help from the audience to select and prepare ingredients for the pot. With zero mess, the vegetables (each given a nonsensical new name) are packed and whacked by audience members, with Cunningham and McCabe responding hilariously to each bang of the wooden mallet. Both performers are trained dancers, and move beautifully, but it’s their interaction with the crowd that gives Soup! its rich flavour. Whether they’re massaging our shoulders with a pair of leeks or inviting us to smell spices, their sense of fun is infectious. The small sample of soup we’re gifted at the end is pretty yummy too, and all the tastier knowing we had a hand in making it.

Vision Mechanics are the only company in Scotland (and one of only a handful across the UK) still working with marionette puppets, so we can only hope they’re inspiring others to take up the mantle in the future. Performed in a charming bespoke tent, The Circus Of Dreams follows the fortunes of Winston, a young tiger searching for the right future. His adoptive mother, a busy baker, tries her best to soothe him but Winston’s destiny lies elsewhere, and we join him on an ever-changing whirlwind adventure through various lands until he finds the titular circus. The attention to detail in each tiny set, from the baker’s kitchen appliances to the circus apparatus, is exquisite. Meanwhile, the handcrafted wooden marionettes are a joy to behold (and expertly manipulated) as they move to a lively pre-recorded soundtrack of jazzy music and song. Regardless of your actual age, Vision Mechanics have the ability to fill everyone in the audience with child-like wonder.

American-born, Ireland-based stepdancer Kristyn Fontanella also knows how to evoke a sense of youthful enchantment in all who watch her. Performed outdoors, free for passers-by to enjoy, Miss Mary captures the spirit of Irish dance masters who used to travel from town to town, imparting their steps and wisdom. Arriving with a tiny chair and a beguiling smile on her face, Fontanella moves through the crowd, stopping here and there to deliver fragments of choreography. When she plucks a handful of observers from the gathering and turns them into performers, the sense of belonging blossoms and grows until eventually we’re all up and dancing and her smile has become ours. So engrossed are we in our newfound joy, that it takes a moment to realise that Fontanella has moved on. She’s now a figure in the distance, moving on to new places having made her mark on all of us.

In many ways, Miss Mary sums up the entire Findhorn Bay Festival. A moment of creativity that breezes into your life, changes it for the better, then goes away. Although happily, the festival itself will be back to do it all again in September 2028. And as it came to a close in Forres Town Hall, with a night of female-fronted music and stunning vocals, first from polyphonic marvels Kuchke (with astute beat accompaniment from DJ Dolphin Boy) and then from the innovative and wonderfully quirky Birdvox, the lid closed on another triumphant celebration of culture.

See findhornbayarts.com for future events and festivals; main picture of The Flying Ceilidh by Paul Campbell.