New events are still being added to the St Monans Festival line-up for Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 September. The latest is the opening of the amazing Jim Matthew Camera Collection.

The late Mr Matthew assembled a massive collection of thousands of old cameras, with pride of place being given to his collection of Kodak Brownies, of which he had almost every model ever produced. The collection was previously opened as part of the first St Monans festival in 2009, but has not been available to view for several years. Since Mr Matthew’s death, a group of local enthusiasts have begun the process of setting up a Trust to fundraise and take over the collection, and as a result, there will be a rare opportunity to see the collection on both days of the arts festival, between 10am and 12noon in the morning and from 2pm until 4pm each afternoon.

Glas Duo, violist Hannah Craib and violinist Vyara Mladenova, were given a preview the camera collection (see photograph). Hannah is from St Monans and her duo partner Vyara hails from Bulgaria. They will be playing at various venues over the festival weekend, including in the Auld Kirk on Sunday 15th at 4.15pm, where they will be joined by West Voices of Bremen and the St Monans Community Choir.

There is also a Music Night in the Town Hall on Saturday evening featuring Ceilidh music from the Billy Anderson Band and short sets from several local musicians, and many other events ranging from creative writing to history walks to diabolo skills to pottery workshops.

“There is something for everyone. There’s a lot going on at the weekend, and we hope the community and our friends from far and wide will turn out in force to support the festival,” said the arts festival’s secretary Helen Marshall.

“We have more Open Houses than ever before; there has been a record number of entries to the photo competition, posts on social media are being widely shared and viewed, and there is a real buzz in the lead up to the weekend, so please come and join us for our festival which promises to be the biggest and best yet.”