Day 11

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Leith Festival Pageant

Current Leith Festival Director and local Personal Trainer, Tracy Griffen, takes us through the past and present of the Leith Festival in her short piece titled ‘Parading in Leith’.

Parading in Leith

By: Tracy Griffen

Leith Festival is one of the oldest in Edinburgh. Having starting in 1907 with a pageant and Gala day (badge day) to raise funds for Leith Hospital (this was before the NHS). For many years the buckets were shaken and the pennies donated went to that fantastic cause.

Over a century later it’s still going, however the money raised now goes into the festival funds to keep this great community event happening - albeit in a slightly different form in 2020.

Traditionally, on the second Saturday of June a colourful Pageant proceeds down Leith Walk to the Gala day on Leith Links.

24 Greig and Douglas biscuit manufacturers float 1929

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The pageant has had various routes over the years, and even started at Newhaven one year. Some say the year the Tall Ships came to Leith, in 1995, was the biggest pageant. Which year was your favourite?

The Pageant is headed up by the Mock Lord Provost, a light-hearted poke in the ribs to neighbouring Edinburgh (many in Leith were against the assimilation with Edinburgh in 1920). The Mock Lord Provost is usually a well-known figure in Leith, often a publican, and is adorned in a gown that was hand-made and embroidered over fifty years ago.

In the early years the pageant comprised of horse-drawn carts, highly decorated and sponsored by local businesses (such as whisky distillers or local factories). The whole community got involved to dress the carts and wear costumes in a bid to win the ‘best dressed’ competition. Fast forward a few decades, and motorised floats became popular. In recent years, the pageant enjoyed a revival becoming more environmentally friendly, with entrants on foot or bike (or even wearing large puppets).

Local organisation, Citizen Curator, ran a project over in 2018, entitled Queens for a Day , all about the Scottish tradition of Gala and parading (‘Queen for a day’ being the parade queen). Their video (below) is well worth a watch!


Special thanks to Tracy for writing this piece for Leith For Ever. Tracy has been the Leith Festival Director for the last 2 years, but is also a Personal Trainer based in Leith. You can find her studio Griffen Fitness on Balfour Street. This year in the absence of Festival Mayhem to keep Tracy busy, she has written a book on getting fit from home! Go to her studio page for more info, link below. Thanks also to Leith Festival volunteer John Paul, who provided some of the photos used in this post.

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