Latest News Archives - Helensburgh Festivals

Helensburgh’s Best Dressed Window Competition – Voting now Live!

🎄Helensburgh is Ready to Sparkle! ✨

Voting is now OPEN for the Annual Best-Dressed Window Competition! 🪩

Christmas is fast approaching, and we are thrilled to have so many local Helensburgh shops and businesses enter our annual Best-Dressed Window Competition once again!

We’ve seen some absolutely wonderful, creative window displays over the last couple of years, and this year is no different, from even more businesses! You have made the whole town sparkle and glow! ✨

How to Enter

HOW TO VOTE
Just browse through all the entries in our Facebook Album below, and give your favourites a ‘like’, or a ‘love’ and let us know what you think!

Please take a walk around town and pop into the businesses participating, it’s not just shops, we have salons, charities and even one of our local vets is taking part this year!

Voting will close on Monday 15th December, so you have plenty of time to vote for your favourites!

The TOP 3 windows with the most votes will be announced on Tues 16th Dec and we will get your prizes to you before Saturday the 20th just in time for Christmas!

We will be doing a little feature on each business participating over the next couple of weeks, and all the windows are in the Gallery below – although you need to visit our Facebook page to vote for your favourites.

Thank you to everyone who has taken part this year. Your imagination knows no bounds!

SPONSORSHIP

Remember, the Helensburgh Winter Festival is a small charity, and we rely on fundraising to keep the festival alive each year. We don’t currently have enough volunteers to do a raffle or tombola this year, so if any businesses would like to provide us with sponsorship, we would be sure to promote you heavily on our website and socials.

We would really appreciate any donations made via our website, however small, every penny is much appreciated.

Best Dressed Windows 2025 Entries

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITES ON FACEBOOK

Alzheimer Scotland

Buttercup Moon

Capercaillie Gifts

Grasshopper Toys

Helensburgh Cycles

Helensburgh Eyecare

Helensburgh Pet Shop

Level10 Hair

LomondVeterinaryClinic

Natures Harvest

Oxfam Helensburgh

Paper Kisses

Pitter Patter Potter

Sasco Art

Shooftie

The Scandanavian Shop

The Wedding Planner

The White Heather Co

Top To Toe Salon

Tweedie of Helensburgh

Wrights Home Hardware

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok for more updates and a full schedule of events.

VENDOR APPLICATIONS
Apply via this Application form only!

APPLY FOR A STALL

The Penguin Painting Prize-Giving: A Splash of Young Talent at the Winter Festival!

Latest News

What a fantastic, heartwarming time we had on Sunday, November 30th, celebrating the incredible artistic talent of our local young people at the annual Penguin Painting Prize-giving! The atmosphere was buzzing with festive cheer and proud families.

A huge, heartfelt thank you goes out to all the local schools that participated this year. The creativity, imagination, and sheer number of beautiful entries we received made judging an incredibly delightful but difficult task!

It’s clear that Helensburgh has some truly talented students. You should all be so proud!

🏆 Congratulations to Our Brilliant Winners!

After much deliberation, we narrowed the hundreds of entries down to just 50 – no mean feat!

The public voted in their droves on Facebook, and we were thrilled to award our top three young artists for their stunning penguin masterpieces.

1st & 2nd Place WINNERS - Nova and Millie

1st & 2nd Place Winners: Nova from P3 at St. Joseph's Primary & Millie from P2/3 at Cardross Primary

3rd Place Winner: Sienna from P5 at St. Joseph's Primary

A massive congratulations to:
• 🥇 1st Place Winner: Nova from P3 at St. Joseph’s Primary
• 🥈 2nd Place Winner: Millie from P2/3 at Cardross Primary
• 🥉 3rd Place Winner: Sienna from P5 at St. Joseph’s Primary

Sienna was unwell and couldn’t attend the presentation, but we ensured her prize was delivered to the school this week, and you can see from her smile how delighted she was.

Your penguin masterpieces were absolutely fantastic! 🎉

You can also watch the full presentation video from the day on our Instagram or Facebook pages.

View the Gallery of our TOP 50 Penguins!

1st Place Winner: Nova from P3 at St. Joseph's Primary

2nd Place Winner: Millie from P2/3 at Cardross Primary

3rd Place Winner: Sienna from P5 at St. Joseph's Primary

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok for more updates and a full schedule of events.

Helensburgh’s Best Dressed Window 2025

Latest News

🎄Get Ready to Sparkle, Helensburgh! ✨

It’s Time for the Annual Best-Dressed Window Competition! 🪩

The Helensburgh Winter Festival is fast approaching, and we are thrilled to invite all local Helensburgh shops and businesses to enter our annual Best-Dressed Window Competition once again!

We’ve seen some absolutely wonderful, creative window displays over the last couple of years, and this year, we want to see even better displays from more businesses! This is your moment to shine and show off your talent to the whole town! ✨

How to Enter

📧 Email Anne at ‘media@helensburghwinterfestival.co.uk’ to officially register your business entry.

🪄Get Creative! Design and install your most festive, dazzling, and eye-catching window display.

📷 Picture Time: Once your window is ready, drop Anne another email, and we will come and photograph your fantastic display.

👍 Voting: All entries will be uploaded right here to our Facebook page for the public to vote for their favourites

Deadline

There is no official cut-off date to enter, but we would like to get all the photos up at the same time so everyone has an equal chance in the voting on our socials. We would also like to launch it well in advance of the festival, which is the 29th and 30th Nov.

I would hope to have all the photos taken by Thurs, 20th Nov, so that I can get them up on Facebook at least a week before the festival. The online voting will stay open until 15th December, so we have time to get the prizes out before Christmas.

If you can have your window ready by the week beginning 17th Nov, that would be great!

SPONSORSHIP

Remember, the Helensburgh Winter Festival is a small charity, and we rely on fundraising to keep the festival alive each year. We don’t currently have enough volunteers to do a raffle or tombola this year, so if any businesses would like to provide us with sponsorship, we would be sure to promote you heavily on our website and socials.

We would really appreciate any donations made via our website, however small, every penny is much appreciated.

We can’t wait to see all your fabulous festive window displays!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok for more updates and a full schedule of events.

VENDOR APPLICATIONS
Apply via this Application form only!

APPLY FOR A STALL

Helensburgh Winter Festival Penguin Painting Competition NOW LIVE

Latest News

🐧🗳️ The 2025 Helensburgh Winter Festival Penguin Painting Competition is NOW LIVE! 🎨✨

Our Winter Festival Penguin Crew have been busy little selectors, tirelessly sifting through the hundreds of incredible entries from our talented local schools across Helensburgh and Lomond. We were absolutely blown away by the creativity, colour, and effort from every single child!

We have finally selected our favourite 50 penguins! And now, it’s your turn to choose the winners!

Vote for Your Favourite Penguin!

We’ve rounded up all 50 finalists into one official competition album! To cast your vote and help a penguin win, it’s as simple as:
• 👍 Giving a ‘Like’
• ❤️ Giving a ‘Love’
• 💬 Or simply leaving a Comment on the photo of your chosen penguin!
🚨 Important: Make sure you scroll through the entire album so you don’t miss a single masterpiece!

Prizes & Announcement Details

A huge thank you again to all the local Helensburgh and Lomond Primary schools that participated! We truly appreciate you inspiring such wonderful creativity from…

Arrochar Primary
Cardross Primary
Colgrain Primary
Hermitage Primary
John Logie Baird Primary
Kilcreggan Primary
Parklands Primary
Rosneath Primary
St. Joseph’s Primary

The Top 3 Penguins with the most votes will be announced live on our Festival Stage!

Date & Time: Sunday, November 30th, between 2:30 PM and 3:00 PM
Special Guest: The announcement and prize-giving will be presented by our sensational Celebrity Guest, the one and only Bev Lyons, The Showbiz Lion! Bev had so much fun last year, she simply had to come back for more!

Don’t miss the fabulous entertainment on the stage before and after the prize-giving—it’s set to be a fantastic, fun, family day out in the Square!
Prizes will once again be provided by Helensburgh Winter Festival from our very own beloved local shops, The Toy Shop and Grasshopper Toys.

Go check out the album now and start voting! Share this post and tag your friends and family so they can support our brilliant young artists too!

VOTE NOW on our Facebook page!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok for more updates and a full schedule of events.

VENDOR APPLICATIONS
Apply via this Application form only!

APPLY FOR A STALL

Fun-Packed Family Weekend Planned this November!

Latest News

We have two days of festive cheer, live entertainment and local talent taking centre stage this November at our 13th Helensburgh Winter Festival!

We’re preparing for a huge festive market, funfair, and two days of top local entertainment hosted by speaker and presenter Greg Summers, who you may recognise as ‘The Kilt Walk Guy’!

Excitement is building across the town as final preparations are being made for the THIRTEENTH Annual Helensburgh Winter Festival. The much-loved event promises a fun-packed weekend of festive entertainment, local talent, and community celebration – the perfect way to launch the Christmas season!

Building on the success of our previous festivals, the town centre will once again be transformed into a magical winter market filled with artisan crafts, unique gifts and delicious festive food. Children will be thrilled by the funfair rides and enchanted by Santa’s Grotto in The Bridge, where Mrs Claus and her Elves will lend Santa a helping hand to greet every young visitor and make sure no one is left out.

Spotlight on Stage, Santa Dash & Penguins!

The Festival Stage will be buzzing all weekend, packed with talented local performers. Saturday, November 29th, kicks off the festivities with a performance from the local Clan Colquhoun Pipe Band, opening the event. The excitement continues at 12:15 pm with the highly anticipated Helensburgh Heart Santa Dash and warm-up, setting off a wave of red-suited festive runners through the town. Sunday, November 30th, begins with a flourish as the HMS Neptune Volunteer Band sets a lively tone for the day from 12pm.

Throughout the weekend, attendees can enjoy dazzling displays from beloved local performers, including Boogie Box Jive, Margaret Rose School of Dance, Studio 30, Argyll Dance Academy, and Singer Station, alongside a wealth of other great local talent.

Hosted by the Fabulous Greg Summers

Keeping the energy high and the audience entertained all weekend long is the phenomenal host, Greg Summers. Known affectionately to many as ‘The Kilt Walk Guy’ for his incredible work hosting Scotland’s largest mass participation events, including The Kilt Walk, Greg is guaranteed to bring his unique brand of enthusiasm, fun, and professionalism to the Helensburgh stage.

Our Festival Chair, Gail Broadhurst, said

“We’ve worked hard to bring together the very best of Helensburgh’s community, from the talented performers to the dedicated stallholders. With Greg at the helm and so much local talent on display, we know the atmosphere will be electric and the perfect way to welcome the Christmas season.“

Mark your calendars and join us for the Helensburgh Winter Festival—the ultimate start to Christmas!

EVENT DETAILS:

What: Helensburgh Winter Festival 2025
When: Saturday, November 29th and Sunday, November 30th, 2025
Where: Helensburgh Town Centre / Colquhoun Square
Cost: Free entry (charges apply for market purchases, Santa’s Grotto and fairground rides)

DONATE ONLINE – Remember, the Helensburgh Winter Festival is a small charity, and we rely on fundraising to keep the festival alive each year. We really appreciate any donations made via our website.

We can’t wait to see you all!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok for more updates and a full schedule of events.

VENDOR APPLICATIONS
Apply via this Application form only!

APPLY FOR A STALL

Helensburgh Midsummer Festival 2025 was a Scorcher!

Latest News

What a Weekend as Helensburgh’s Midsummer Festival Dazzles Again!

What a fantastic weekend it was! We are still buzzing from the incredible energy and community spirit at this year’s Helensburgh Midsummer Festival, held in Colquhoun Square in June. It was an absolute delight to see so many of you turn out to celebrate with us, making this year’s festival another truly unforgettable event.

Saturday was a scorcher, creating the perfect atmosphere for a celebration of local talent, delicious food, and family fun. The square was a hive of activity, with a wonderful array of market stalls showcasing the very best of local crafts and treats. From unique handmade gifts to mouth-watering bakes and street food, there was something to tantalise every taste bud. Even when we thought Sunday was going to be a wash-out due to the heavy rain all morning, everyone’s spirits were still high from the day before, and nobody minded too much – especially when the glorious 40-strong Rock Choir came along and sang their hearts out in the rain, and had everyone singing along. The sun eventually came out in the afternoon, and turned the day into another sell-out success!

The entertainment was second to none, with a packed programme of live music, performances from local dance schools, Margaret Rose School of Dance and Argyll Dance Academy.
Our Taylor Swift Tribute act was a massive hit with all the Swifties out there, young and old!
A variety of talented buskers filled the air both days with a great mix of popular tunes. It was a joy to see so many people singing along and dancing in the square. A special mention must go to the fabulous Boogie Box Jive, who had everyone from toddlers to a few in their 90s – all dancing in the sunshine.

A massive thank you must go to SHS Events for organising a superb selection of market stalls and street food vendors for everyone, to the market traders themselves who come to all our events and support us every year, to our incredible, but very small team of volunteers who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make this event happen. Everyone’s dedication and hard work are what make these festivals so special for our town. We also want to thank every single one of you who came along and supported the festival. The proceeds from this event are vital and go directly towards helping us make the upcoming Helensburgh Winter Festival and Christmas Town events the best they can be.

The Midsummer Festival is more than just a day out; it’s a true reflection of the vibrant, warm, and friendly community we have here in Helensburgh.

We can’t wait to see you all again this November 29th & 30th, for our next big event – The Helensburgh Winter Festival 2025 – don’t forget to register via our Eventbrite page and keep following our Socials for more exciting news and updates on our Stage Lineup, vendors and competitions coming soon!

Click on the photos below to enlarge…