Catchment Connections
We are engaging diverse communities across the catchment to grow a local culture of nature connectedness, belonging and stewardship to the catchment.
About
We are bringing people together to explore the rivers, places and stories that connect us across the catchment. Working with schools, children, ecologists, farmers, elderly and many more, we exploring what it means to be part of a shared catchment and celebrate the many memories, experiences and perspectives that shape it. This is culminating in a one-day event, a Catchment Festival, in October. Read more about it below.
This work is led by creative practitioner Laura Frood in collaboration with the Leven Catchment Collective team.
Catchment Festival: A Day Along the Leven Catchment
The Catchment Festival is a durational event that unfolds across a single day, the 17th October, inviting people to experience the landscape from dawn until dusk. It will be a day of walks, food, art, ecology, stories and conversations celebrating the landscape shaped by water and the people who call it home. Beginning as the landscape wakes in the upper reaches of the catchment, and arriving in the lower parts of the catchment by evening to gather around a shared table, the Catchment Festival invites those who participate to explore, create, have fun, eat and imagine the future of the catchment together.
Whether you want to take part by tuning in to our first happening, the Catchment Radio, come along to a single event, or follow us across multiple events throughout the day, we welcome you however you would like to join.
Click on the events below to learn more about them and register your attendance. All events are free.
6.00am | Catchment Radio: Voices at Dawn
The festival begins with a live radio broadcast as the landscape wakes. Tune in to hear farmers' stories and reflections on early morning routines and the relationship between farming and water. The broadcast will be transmitted live on local radios and shared online through the Sustainable Catchment Podcast (click below or find on Spotify), allowing audiences near and far to begin the day together. We are putting the finishing touches on which radio station will carry the broadcast - watch this space, and we will update you as soon as it is confirmed.
7.00am - 8.30am | Dawn Chorus Walk at Loch Leven
A guided early morning bird walk at Loch Leven Nature Reserve invites participants to explore the sounds of birds as the catchment comes alive. Led by Tom Lane, Countryside Manager and bird specialist, the walk welcomes people of all experience levels and abilities when it comes to birdwatching. It encourages careful listening to birdsong while exploring the ecological importance of Loch Leven and its role within the wider catchment.
8.30am - 9am | Solargraphy Reveal
Drop by Pinkfoot Café for a relaxed morning and a free coffee as we open pinhole cameras that have spent the past thirty days quietly recording the movement of the sun across the Leven Catchment. Installed both across the landscape, each camera has been gathering light in silence, and today those hidden images are revealed for the first time.
9am - 10am | A Farmer's Breakfast at Crossburn
Join us for a delicious breakfast on a farmer's hill at the top of the Leven Catchment. Gathered around a long communal table, we will share a meal sourced from ingredients and produce grown across the catchment, with one of its uppermost rivers running past us. Come along to see an upland part of the catchment, discover a beautiful waterfall, and take in the view over Loch Leven.
10.00am - 12.00pm | ArtMove By the River: A Morning of Art Making
Bring the family or group down to Riverside Park in Glenrothes for a morning of out door fun and hands-on exploration. Led by ArtMovesFife, we will get stuck into creative making, exploring rivers, wildlife and local stories in a safe and relaxed setting. After meeting at FLORIS the Hippo, we will follow the flow of Riverside Park, investigating sounds, waters, mark making, paths and playparks.
1.00pm - 3.00pm | River Roaming Along the Back Burn
Join us for a gentle walk along the Back Burn river at Coul Den. The Back Burn is a tributary to the River Leven, and a known spawning river for native brown trout, as well as home to other species such as otter, heron and dipper. During this walk we will explore the history of the Back Burn, the changes to the river over time, and how a recent restoration project has worked to restore natural processes and support local wildlife to thrive.
4.00pm - 6.00pm | Catchment Assembly
Join us for a hands-on assembly exploring how to move from isolated actions to a collective movement for the long-term thriving of our catchment, its communities, economies, nature and food systems. People across our region are already taking action, in ways both big and small, to care for the land, rivers, businesses and communities that make up the catchment. Imagine what could happen if we joined forces to spark a truly ambitious, long-term movement for change. That is the main question that will guide our afternoon together.
6.00pm - 8.30pm | Catchment Stories, Screening & Supper
Join us to mark the close of the Catchment Festival with an evening of film, art and food celebrating the stories, memories and producers that shape the Leven Catchment- including the first screening of a documentary made on the day, new work from two artists, a photography exhibition by high school students, and recorded oral histories from residents and farmers across the catchment. The evening closes with a two-course supper made from ingredients sourced exclusively from local farmers and producers.
Catchment Festival Collaborators, Growers & Producers
We are collaborating with farmers, producers, organisations and individuals throughout the day, across the many events and the food we will be serving. Below, you can see who they are. As collaborators are confirmed, we will keep adding them.
News & Updates
Opportunity – Two Artist Micro Commissions
Think Like a Catchment Commission fee: £580Presentation: Saturday 17 October 2026 As part of the Forth Rivers Trust Artist in Residency programme, exploring our relationship with the Leven Catchment, we are inviting two artists and creative practitioners who live or work within the catchment to each respond to the ideas emerging from the residency so…
Artist in Residence: Think Like a Catchment
Before this residency, I had never really thought about a catchment. I knew rivers as individual places. I knew landscapes through neighbourhoods, parks, coastlines and hills disconnected experiences perhaps. But a catchment asks us to think differently. It ignores the boundaries we create and instead follows the movement of water, connecting places that might otherwise…
Connecting Young Hearts to Their Catchment
As part of the lead-up to the Catchment Festival, we’ve been delivering nature-based learning sessions for schools across the catchment, both within classrooms and at the beautiful Pond Cottage. These sessions explore how children connect with the rivers and landscapes around them, helping to build a stronger understanding of and relationship with their local catchment.…
