Celebrate was created by the Scottish Lottery distributors distributors (BIG Lottery Fund, Creative Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund and sportscotland), it will focus on supporting events and activities across the whole of Scotland in the lead-up to the games.

It has funded local celebration events and activities which stimulate greater involvement in community activity and develop our understanding as citizens of the Commonwealth. 

To date 378 grants have been awarded totalling £2.8million through the Celebrate fund for a range of sports, arts, heritage and community events. Given higher than expected demand the programme now plans to award the remaining £1.2m of this funding to local groups across Scotland in the next few weeks. Around 70% of applicants to the fund are currently successful.

Project examples

Hawick’s heroes: The history of Rugby Sevens

Hawick is home to Jamie Smith, a competitor in the 2014 Commonwealth Games. He will be competing as part of Scotland’s Rugby Sevens team. To celebrate this, and explore the history of this sport in the area, the local history group will be exploring local and national archives and talking to players of the sport. Local people will contribute to the project by loaning their photographs and objects, and putting all this information together into a small display on the history of Rugby Sevens for their local community hall.

There will be a celebration event to launch the display, which will coincide with the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The project will run over 6 months, being completed in time for the beginning of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Commonwealth Culinary Heritage

A group of women from Aberdeen will explore the history of traditional food in both Scotland and other Commonwealth countries. They will research recipes and cooking techniques, as well as carry out interviews with local people, to explore the cultural heritage of our food, as well as the history of agriculture, trade and industry in different Commonwealth countries.

Running over four months, the project will involve members of the community, who will look at the changes that have taken place over the last 50 years, and the diversity of food that is now available and celebrated in Scotland. People will collect memories and stories about food in Scotland and influences from other Commonwealth countries.

At the end of the project, participants and the local community will be able to take part in a community tasting event, allowing people to come together and discover what has been learnt through the project. People will be able to add their own stories through a project website showing the differences and similarities in traditional foods between Commonwealth countries.

Further information

For further details about the Celebrate programme, and how to apply, go to the Celebrate website.

All applications to the programme will be handled by the Big Lottery Fund, and decisions on heritage projects will be taken by HLF.