A NEW arts and music festival is set to take place in West Kilbride this autumn.

Vertex festival will bring together artists, musicians, makers and writers over ten days of events, concerts and workshops.

Villager Chris Maughan is one of the festival organisers.

He said: “West Kilbride is well-known as Scotland’s Craft Town and as a centre for arts and creativity.

“We want to build on this with Vertex, by providing a focus for some of the great talent in the village and opportunities for local people to get together.

“Vertex means the point where things come together – which is what we are hoping to achieve.

“We want to bring different strands of the arts together with the different audiences in the one festival.

“The name is also a nod to the 18th century West Kilbride mathematician Robert Simson.”

Local designer Mary Cahill of Gosh Creative, who is also involved in the town’s Yuletide nights and Micro Talks events, is helping organise the festival.

She said: “For a village the size of West Kilbride it really is amazing when you consider the range of groups involved in the arts and music.

“We want the festival to be a platform for those groups and individuals to celebrate what they do and perhaps reach a wider audience.”

Drew Kirkland, a veteran of West Kilbride Scarecrow Festival, said: “The festival will be a great opportunity for some of the local talent to take to the stage alongside some more established musicians.”

Lucy Chisholm will be hosting an exhibition during the festival and also running two community arts projects.

She said: “We’re aiming to have something for everyone including two community based arts projects – one involving a sculpture that will be a centre-piece for the festival and the other involving large murals, both created by locals.”

The festival incorporates existing activity including concerts from Music in West Kilbride, the village’s Soundtown project for young musicians, Village Folk and the West Kilbride Ukulele Group as well as concerts and a live comedy night and a Gothic Ball to mark Hallowe’en.

Funding has been confirmed from organisations including West Kilbride Community Trust and Magnox Socio-Economic Fund.

The festival takes place from October 20 to 29 with around 20 events across five venues.

Find out more at www.vertexfestival.co.uk.