A fellow Rotarian, and former President of the Perth St.John's club, Helen MacKinnon recently joined us for a very engaging talk about the Perth Festival of The Arts.

The festival this year is in it's 50th year and a slideshow of past events sure brought back memories of these events that some of our members attended. Although it is in its 50th year, it is not the 50th Festival with the planned events of 2020 sadly being cancelled due to the pandemic. Not to be outdone, however, it did return in 2021 in a hybrid format with many virtual online experiences being offered along with novel socially distanced activities such as the outdoor cinema at Scone Palace's grounds.

2022, however, is back with a bang! Some 40 events being showcased across 12 days offering a wide variety of formats for all ages for an estimated 13,000 patrons as well as the ArTAY exhibition which will be ongoing at Horsecross. No mean feat for Helen who must be simulataneously spinning plates and herding cats. And current affairs affecting the programme as the Russian Opera were to be the finale but with the ongoing at this time events in Ukraine, the Russian Opera's tour has been cancelled. So Helen was frantically trying to replace this event with something else that would be appropriate to close the festival.

A music graduate, Helen has worked in the charity sector in Perth for nearly 20 years across marketing, fundraising and business development roles, and as Chief Executive of Perth & Kinross Association of Voluntary Service until 2015. Helen then moved back to her roots in the arts, starting a professional career as a composer of music. Alongside composing, Helen is in her fourth year as Festival Administrator for the charity Perth Festival of the Arts.

if you'd like to know more, or to share memories or photos of past years, you can contact Helen at info@perthfestival.co.uk