The festival was bookended by two family-friendly days of free outdoor activities and performance. The Town Centre Takeover on Saturday 31st August featured stilt walking and aerial demonstrations from Fly Agaric Performing Arts, performances from Nairn Youth Theatre and local choirs and bands, the Mad Hatters of Moray, ‘Walkaboot Bard’ Hamish MacDonald, street artist Fresh Paint, and the 'Walk on the Wild Side' parade with Nairn Pipe Band. Then on Sunday 8th September, over 150 people joined us for the 'Beasties and Butterflies Ball' parade, led by environmentalist artist Gordon Maclellan and Guarana Street Band with The Penguin's Tuxedo. 

Creative workshops during the Festival included short story writing, screenwriting, editing, and monster drawing for children, while tours took in Nairn Golf Club’s unique archive, the extensive art collection at Cawdor Castle, and Nairn’s Black Isle Bronze Foundry.

Photographer Marc Marnie displayed just some of his huge archive of work featuring celebrated musicians photographed on stage and behind the scenes at the WASPS Links Studios, whilst at Nairn Community and Arts Centre an Open Exhibition with the theme ‘The Domestic and the Wild’ showcased artwork by professional and amateur artists from across the North and North-East of Scotland and the Islands.

All of this would not have been possible without our brilliant sponsors, funders, partners, patrons, supporters, Festival Friends, and local businesses, to all of whom we are extremely grateful. Special thanks to our principal sponsor Haventus, who are generously supporting the Festival for three years, and our headline sponsor Tornagrain. We are also very grateful for public funding from Creative Scotland and Event Scotland.

This year’s festival programme cover artwork was created by Highland Pop artist Michael Forbes, featuring Nairn’s legendary regular visitor of days gone by, Charlie Chaplin.