Largo Blue Space Festival Celebrates Community Conservation
On 6 and 7 June, Friends of Largo Bay brought the community together for the Largo Blue Space Festival, marking World Environment Day and World Oceans Day. The two-day event at the Aurrie Mor showcased the breadth of conservation work happening in and around Largo Bay and the Firth of Forth, with 15 exhibitors including community groups, environmental organisations and research bodies.
The festival combined learning, creativity and fun. Visitors could join a sea shanty workshop, try their hand at felting a starfish, and discover new games exploring coastal conservation. Three films were screened across the weekend: Libby Penman’s “Shooting Animals,” Cal Major’s “A Line in the Sound” (with a Q&A from Sean Flynn of Blue Marine Foundation), and The Scottish Wildlife Trust’s “Oceans of Value.” Sunday morning saw a well-attended Otter Ecology Walk led by Lutra Grampia, meeting at Elie Holiday Park car park and heading out to Ruddon’s Point.
A highlight was the debut outing of the Community Triptych as a work-in-progress, which was warmly received by visitors. The festival also supported research by two PhD students from SRUC. Beyond the activities, there was significant networking and idea-sharing among exhibitors and visitors, all learning more about the amazing work local groups do to conserve and preserve Largo Bay in ways that are fun, educational and sociable. The Coastal Testimonies Exhibition continued to run at The Aurrie Mor throughout June.
This breadth reflects the strength of collaborative work across the Firth of Forth coastline, with everyone from citizen scientists to PhD researchers working toward the same goal of protecting and understanding our marine environment.
Happy Felting
Last week, our Biodiversity Monitoring Volunteers had a fantastic couple of days exploring the shoreline and deepening their understanding of local coastal ecology.
On Friday, they were joined by Charlotte Keeley from the Berwickshire Marine Reserve for a day-long training workshop based in Largo Bay. The session included practical, hands-on learning to help us identify and monitor biodiversity on the shore. The group learned to record species accurately, contribute to real data collection, and gained insight into other successful citizen science projects along the coast.
🌊 Huge thanks to Charlotte for an excellent and inspiring session!
The following day, some of the team were back out on the beach, this time working with the Edinburgh Shoreline Project and Rui on a new initiative to establish long-term data collection to monitor temperature changes and climate impacts on coastal biodiversity.
This exciting project will allow us to track how our local environment changes over time – and contribute to a growing national picture of climate effects.
Do you fancy getting more involved with our citizen science projects ?
We would love to have you just get in touch.
Building Connections
We’ve also been pleased to welcome Gabby, an intern from the University of St Andrews School of Geography and Sustainable Development, who is spending three days with us this May.
Gabby is supporting our Biodiversity Group as part of a new effort to strengthen connections between Largo Communities Together and the University of St Andrews.
We’re excited to see what ideas and opportunities emerge from this collaboration – and look forward to building lasting links that support our local environment and learning.
Do you fancy getting more involved with our citizen science projects ?
We would love to have you just get in touch 🙂 [email protected]
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us on Sunday 6th April for our 3rd Annual Largo Bay Beach Clean and Litter Survey, part of the Great British Spring Clean 2025 and in support of the Marine Conservation Society.
Despite the crisp spring air, we were fortunate to enjoy beautiful uninterrupted sunshine, and it was fantastic to see volunteers of all ages – including some very enthusiastic young helpers (and a few four-legged ones too!).
This year, we focused our survey efforts across five key locations around the bay, collecting and recording data to contribute to the Marine Conservation Society’s long-standing national monitoring programme, which has been recording beach litter since 1993.
While the final stats are still being processed, we estimate a fantastic 552kg of litter was removed, including:
27.5kg of surveyed material
152kg from surrounding areas
A colossal tractor load of approximately 400kg, including 85kg of sheep dip containers and other large plastic items
Special thanks go to William Clark and his mighty tractor for tackling the heaviest and trickiest plastics and assisting with rubbish removal.
We’re also hugely grateful to:
The Cottage Window Café, Lundin Coffee Co., The Aurrie, and The Mirador Café at Elie Holiday Park for generously providing Pickers’ Perks
Fife Coast and Countryside Trust for the loan of equipment and support with uplift
And of course, our amazing Friends of Largo Bay volunteers, families, and supporters who made the day such a success
📩 A summary of the survey results will be shared with all registered participants once approved by the Marine Conservation Society.
Look for our focused cleans to start soon, and thank you once again for helping to protect and care for our coast.
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