New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy: Delivery Plan 2024-2026 - Year 1 Report

Case Study: Refugee Festival Scotland 2025

Scottish Refugee Council (SRC) led an action to organise and deliver nationwide the Refugee Festival Scotland. The action aimed to “celebrate Scotland’s diverse cultural identities by providing people from refugee backgrounds with a platform to showcase their creativity, cultural heritage and contributions to life in Scotland; create connections by bringing people from different backgrounds together to meet, mix and get to know each other better; and promote the cultural richness that diversity brings to Scotland and a culture of welcome and support.” (Action 4.3)

Established in 2000, Refugee Festival Scotland (RFS) is co-ordinated and produced by SRC and presented as part of Refugee Week every June. RFS encompasses:

• An Open Programme, which provides an umbrella for a wide range of grassroots groups, organisations, and individuals to lead events anywhere in Scotland and connect with each other. Over the last six years, up to 70 events annually (around 46% of those on the Open Programme) have been supported by the Festival’s Small Grants scheme.
• An Arts Programme, produced by SRC, featuring commissioned projects and open calls for artists, a Programming Fellowship, and partnership projects which highlight and help further community arts provision for New Scots in Scotland.
• Ambassadors and volunteering programmes to maximise impact and increase the fostering of talent and experience, allowing for more equitable opportunities in the cultural sector.

2025 Festival Edition – MILESTONES: Reach and Impact

Refugee Festival Scotland (RFS) 2025 ran from 13-22 June. This year was exceptional, marking 25 years since the Festival started and SRC’s 40th anniversary. The Festival theme was MILESTONES, inviting communities across Scotland to commemorate decades of cultural enrichment, renewal and welcome, made possible through providing sanctuary in Scotland.

Quotes from organisers and participants

“The support from Refugee Festival Scotland was excellent — responsive, encouraging, and empowering. It gave our small rural charity visibility and purpose in a national context, and we’d love to build on this in future years.” (Organiser’s feedback)

“It was a powerful reminder of the strength, creativity, and resilience within refugee and New Scots communities. Events like this not only celebrate culture and identity but also help break down barriers and build real connections.” (Organiser’s feedback)

“I’m very satisfied that we have managed to bring the people together, the unity is there, we managed to unite all the diverse, different cultural people through this event and the other organisations made their connections. And they get to make new friends and they get to know their neighbours.” (Organiser’s feedback)

“[RFS is] about collaborative work, it’s about networking. Thinking about this work not as [a] competition, but as us coming together.” (Artist’s feedback)

“Things like sharing food is really important, hospitality, sharing language. It’s nice to have the positive that people are really proud of their cultures and it often gets missed in the news when they hear the negative.” (Attendee’s feedback)

Key data

SRC commissioned social research agency The Lines Between to evaluate RFS 2025, and capture its impact in celebrating and showcasing the heritage, culture, skills and talents of refugees and people seeking asylum.

Festival Participation

• The programme closed with 167 events, which included live music, performances, exhibitions, workshops, film screenings, cooking classes, walking tours, sports and outdoors activities, community celebrations and more. Events took place across 21 local authorities, from Orkney to Dumfries, with an estimated attendance of 16,867. This maintains the scale and geographical spread of programming reached in 2024.
• The figures also compare positively to those of other well-established festivals in Scotland. For comparison, the 2024 Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival had .

Sharing the message of the FESTIVAL

• SRC secured more than 50 pieces of Festival-related media coverage in local and national press, radio, and TV. Stories featured on media platforms across Scotland, from Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, to Greenock, Inverness, and Paisley. The Festival was also covered on STV news, BBC Radio Scotland and in national publications including The Times, The Herald, The Scotsman, The National, Scotland on Sunday, and The Sunday Post.
• More than 1,300 people engaged with SRC’s World Refugee Day Solidarity Action campaign by liking and sharing content or posting the banner on their own social media accounts.
• During the key festival period (19 May to 23 June) the festival website was viewed 38,613 times by 11,679 active users over a total of 19,492 sessions.

Festival Impact

• 89% of surveyed audience members who did not identify as a refugee or person seeking asylum agreed that they felt more positive about the Refugee community in Scotland after attending a festival event and 86% reported having a better understanding of the contribution that refugees and people seeking asylum make to cultural and community life.
• 97% of audience members who identified as a refugee or person seeking asylum said they feel: more welcome; better connected to community organisations in their area including those that offer or support cultural activities; and better connected to other people as a result of attending a Festival event. 90% agreed that their community’s culture is better represented.
• Qualitative feedback from audience members is favourable, and a range of positive impacts are evident, such as improved social connections, sense of community and belonging.
• 93% of event organisers agreed that the support they received from SRC met their needs.

For further details and overview of events, see Scottish Refugee Council’s Refugee Festival Scotland 2025 Highlights and Overview report.2