Renfrew Gala Day

Overview

The Gala is a community-led event with free cultural and sporting activities for everyone, involving individuals, community groups and council departments at the planning stage. It is traditionally held in Robertson Park on the first Sunday in June and average visitor figures used to be between 6,000 and 7,500 until the past two years when numbers rose to over 11,000.

Funding

Renfrewshire Arts and Museums are allocated £10,000 annually from the Renfrew Common Good Fund to cover the cost of the Gala Day and its associated programme.

Arts and Museums, in partnership with Youth Services and Sports Development, work with various community groups to plan activities and events for the day, including Renfrew Community Council and Renfrew Youth Forum. They are actively involved in organising and facilitating certain activities in addition to the local Army Cadets, Dynamite Gymnastics, Kirklandneuk Community Centre, Renfrew Accordian and Fiddle Club, Renfrew Youth Drop-In Hut, Renfrew Traders Association, Renfrew Guides and St.Margaret’s Church.

Success factors

  • Meetings with various community groups and frequent and purposeful communication
  • Holding the meetings in different local venues making them accessible to community members
  • Working closely with Youth Services and YMCA Youth drop-in ensuring young people are now included in planning processes and allocated a budget to provide appropriate activities.
  • Enabling good relations between older and younger people by bringing the age groups together.
  • Renfrew Community Council presents the annual Citizen of the Year award to a nominated person as part of the Gala Celebrations. It will explore the idea of a Youth Citizen of the Year’ Award in partnership with Renfrew Youth Voice to set criteria and engage others.

What Renfrew Youth Voice members said:

“We felt our contributions were heard and appreciated.”

“Attending the meetings was useful as it helped us understand the scale of the event and everyone’s role, and in particular what was expected of us.”

“We felt that we were listened to and felt confident to speak up and ask questions and to make our own suggestions.”

“We learned a lot from other community members and found the meetings friendly and non-threatening.”