SCALLOPFEST 🐚 2027

People • Peace • Scallops

Scallopfest is an idea for a celebration of food, music, community and second chances — born by the sea in Portobello.

The idea is simple: bring a completely mixed group of people together, feed them something wonderful, play great music and see what happens.

Fresh scallops are served in their shells. When you've finished, the shell is yours to take home — perhaps with a little purple smiley face drawn on it — as a reminder of the night.

The music begins with local folk musicians, before moving into reggae, DJs and live musicians jamming together. Expect dancing, unexpected collaborations and perhaps a song or two from Shug the Monk and the Guardians.

At the heart of the gathering is a simple chalk circle.

Anyone can enter it. Nobody owns it. Nobody gets a better seat.

It connects Scallopfest to the wider International Circle experiment: the idea that sometimes simply creating a place where different people can meet, sit, listen and share space might help us remember how much we have in common.

Scallopfest is also intended to raise money for a charity helping people rebuild their lives, including people who have experienced exclusion or come through the criminal justice system.

And as the evening gets later, there might even be a glimpse of Omega Day — an imagined future celebration of a world that has learned to live a little more peacefully.

No grand promises.

Just scallops. Music. A circle. Different people sharing the same room.

And maybe that's not a bad place to start.

Welcome to Scallopfest.

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Different people. Same circle.