First, the good news from Callander: the summer festival that Callander Community Development Trust were planning to hold in the town’s empty St. Kessog’s church - which they wanted to buy from the council and use as a cultural, community and local enterprise centre - was a huge success.
Callander Summerfest 2014 ran for three months and featured 20 gigs and concerts, 21 talks, 13 exhibitions, 28 workshops, 15 screenings, one craft fair, a pop-up shop, a poetry slam, jazz festival HQ and, finally, a film festival.
But the bad news is: the council decided to sell the church, not to CCDT but the Clanranald Trust (for a reported £100,000) who were looking for a new HQ for their organisation.
Or is it bad news? In a very upbeat email from the CCDT, they told us:
“The new owners are an educational charity who are keen to work with the community, so we should be able to carry on with some of our creative activities from the Callander Summerfest without the huge headache of managing a former church.”
On their own website, the Clanranald Trust (famous for their battle re-enactments) stated that: “We very much intend to open up the building to the local community, providing accommodation for clubs, meetings and exhibitions.”