OUR COMMUNITY

Founded over 50 years ago, Dunbar Civic Week set out to be a community event to celebrate the town. In 2026, Heart of Dunbar Festival, has a new team behind the re-brand and the passion for a community at heart nine day festival in Dunbar. 

At its heart, Heart of Dunbar Festival is driven by values of collaboration, community and creativity. We believe the people of Dunbar can all come together to bring together an exciting and innovative programme of events for all ages, and showcase the great talent and creativity that we have here in the town.

How we support and engage with the community:

• Local Events: Our programme of community run and ticketed events showcases the growing talent in Dunbar from local community groups to youth bands. Artists that feature in the programme will perform alongside some of the youth performers, which provides an incredible platform for shared learning and education.
• The Fun Day Stage: In 2025, we provided a platform for local youth bands and dancers to perform for the community. In 2026 we will be growing this platform for other community groups to showcase their talent.
• Third Sector Collaboration: Each year, we run an offer to Third Sector organisations to promote the great work that they do in East Lothian, serving the Dunbar community. These organisations will be present on the Fun Day and across the Festival programme to engage, inform and support local people.
• Young People: We partner with Youth CAB East Lothian, Dunbar Grammar School and Dunbar Primary to ensure that we are including and encouraging the young people to participate, perform and be engaged with the nine day Festival.
• Local Businesses: We’re proud to partner with a number of local businesses and endeavour to ‘shop local’ for our own business requirements. Our Makers Market at Lauderdale Park and street food trucks on the Fun Day give local vendors a chance to promote their brand and for us to support the local economy.
• Festival Team and Volunteers:  We are a small team who love what we do. We get great satisfaction of bringing you all new events, bringing back some of the older events and seeing this little Festival grow each year. We always need more help though, so please do reach out if you wish to join us!