THE Outwith Festival will return with a six-day celebration of arts and music in September 2022 – and there may even be some taster events this year.

There were fears, following the demise of main funders and organisers Delivering Dunfermline, that the arts and music extravaganza wouldn't come back.

A huge success that's grown year on year, the festival had to be cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic but a new team of volunteers will resurrect it from Tuesday, September 6, to Sunday 11 next year.

Michelle McWilliams said on behalf of the team: “We no longer have a full-time paid events manager nor the financial input from Delivering Dunfermline.

"There are challenges and we’ll need to look at clever ways of generating more revenue such as increased ticket income and fundraising from a wider range of sources.

"Fortunately, the team have all worked in professions essential for staging a festival and most of us are practising artists, writers and musicians.”

Outwith had been organised by Delivering Dunfermline’s events manager, Chris Foote, in partnership with Jane Livingstone and Michelle McWilliams, from Avocado Sweet, and Ian Moir, from Fire Station Creative.

The team behind the all-day live music event included Jonny Watt, George Murray, Dave Locock, Jack Doyle and Grant Allan.

It first launched in September 2017 and doubled in size each year.

When it last ran in 2019, there were 74 film, music, comedy, literature, theatre and art events in 23 venues with more than 300 performances.

A boon for Dunfermline, it attracted more than 9,000 people and a spend of £334,000.

The economic impact report also found that the event was attracting visitors from the rest of Scotland, the UK and overseas with more than one in five travelling from outside Fife.

In past years, a successful fundraising programme secured grants from Fife Council, Event Scotland and the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust.

Michelle said that now needs to ramp up for 2022 to fill the shortfall left by Delivering Dunfermline’s financial contribution.

She added that programming for the 2020 festival was already under way before it had to be cancelled due to COVID and the team will look at rescheduling some of that programming in 2022.

Confirmation of the Outwith Festival's return came just days after Fife Council's economy expert said the event's popularity "will undoubtedly see it come back".

It came up during a discussion of the town's economic profile and recovery plans at the City of Dunfermline area committee last week.

Councillor Ian Ferguson had asked: "The Outwith Festival has disappeared for a couple of years, is there any hope of that being resurrected this year or next?"

Peter Corbett, lead officer for economy, business and employability, replied: "I know a lot of our support for events and projects have been disrupted by the pandemic.

"I think it will largely depend on how successful the re-opening and lessening of restrictions is.

"It was largely community-driven and the popularity of it will undoubtedly see it come back but I can't guarantee whether that will be this year or not."

Cllr Helen Law had added: "I can confirm that the Outwith committee have started to meet with the hope of taking the festival forward.

"There have been discussions and they're looking at options so I'm heartened by that."