Thursday September 11th 2025
Vogrie Pogrie Festival of Creativity and Curious Happenings 2024. Photo by Jethro Optical.
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
This weekend, Vogrie Country Park will transform into a world of music, stories, workshops and woodland wonders as Vogrie Pogrie Festival of Creativity and Curious Happenings returns for its fifth year.
Welcoming over 150 artists to the woodland country park for four days, the unique festival will run from Friday the 12th to Monday the 15th of September. Showcasing performances, community projects, curious encounters and late-night magic under trees, the festival is both open to Vogrie Country Park campers and visitors.
Fast becoming one of Scotland’s most distinctive independent festivals, this year’s programme is ‘bursting with surprises’, showcasing creativity under the woodland scene of the country park.
With the festival being defined by its ‘creativity and curious happenings’, Programme Director Lucy Hopkins explained:
“Vogrie Pogrie is about creating a vibrant, creative space where all artists of all kinds, families and communities can come together to enjoy something special in the woods.
“This year’s programme is our most ambitious yet. We’re bringing together a wide variety of curious happenings, community projects and late-night adventures.”
Community is at the heart of Vogrie Pogrie’s ethos, welcoming outreach projects to the woodland festival to collaborate to create poems forming the interactive ‘Poet-Tree’ installation. These outreach projects include, Word Block Workshops, Dalkeith Men’s Shed, Dalketh Arts, Seeds of Disruption, SCIO and VOCAL, all coming together to add a rich community element to this year’s festival.
“Vogrie Pogrie is more than a festival to watch, it’s a festival to join.”
Photo by Jethro Optical
This year’s audience are invited to step up, speak out and take part. An example of this is the ‘Poet Tree’ which will host open mic sessions with poet Shondra Bowie Riley on the Saturday and Sunday, offering the chance to share songs, poems and stopries in an intimate woodland setting.
Alongside this, budding filmmakers are given the opportunity to sign up for ‘The Lost Pogries’, a two-part folk-horror film workshop at the ‘Poet Tree’ tent to create a collaborative story that is woven into the essence of Vogrie Pogrie.
Jane adde, “Vogrie Pogrie is about more than putting on performances, it’s about sharing a vibe, relaxing and letting yourself play.
“Whether you’re sharing a poem at the open mic, joining in a parade, dancing in the moonlit woods or simply enjoying the beautiful Vogrie Country Park, Vogrie Pogrie is about being part of something magical and unexpected.”
Offering the chance for visitors to dance in the moonlight, the festival is hosting after dark performaces, welcoming in DJ’s and live music as the ‘Twisty Oak’ takes a different energy and families have retreated back to their tents. With the ‘Twisty Oak’ area becoming the beating heart of the late-night programme, accross the weekend festival-goers can expect an electric mix of DJs, installations and atmospheric performances, welcoming in popular DJs such as, DJ Strathcarnage and DJ Gusbo.
Highlights of this year’s programme include ‘The Church of Illusion’, hosted at the ‘Dip of Discovery’, where a spellbinding blend of live ambient sound and immersive visuals created by Augustine Leadar will be on display each evening. Alongside this, a special highlight arrives on Sunday at 3:30pm, when Rhona Smith, a pioneering digital harp players, takes to the Twisty Oak Stafe, providing a creative blend of traditional harp music and her own innovation in a way that is uniquely her own.
Vogrie pogrie organisers have explained that the best way to soak up the festival’s atmosphere is to camp in the heat of it but visitors not staying are also more than welcome, offering a free shuttle bus throughout the weekend from Gorebridge Staion alongside a large car park area that is charging £6 per car.
Vogrie Pogrie is operated as a not-for-profit community interest company, with all income reinvested into the event and the wider community work. Being supported by Creative Scotland, EventScotland, People’s Posrcode Trust and the Midlothian Council, the support enables the continuation each year.
The festival will take place at Vogrie Country Park from Friday the 12th to Monday the 15th of September. Click here for more information on the performances, camping, travel options and accessibility information.
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