BearScotFest ’09
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"Bloody fantastic weekend, everybody is talking about it - thanks to all of you organisers for making it the best event yet!" |
Wow! What a weekend! Bigger and better than previous years, with hundreds of gorgeous furry boys and friends descending on Edinburgh for the whole Fest - boys from all over the world: USA, Australia, Egypt, Russia, Europe and the UK - it was certainly one to remember. This year we also had the pleasure of welcoming our official BearScotFest photographer, James (www.bearpix.co.uk) and film maker Jonathan (www.funfur.tv) who documented the weekend event
| "Lovely seeing you lads over the weekend and thanks for a terrific time... we are still buzzing here. The venue on Saturday was amazing hope you manage you book it next year!" |  |
Things got off to a great start with the registration desk in the New Town Bar welcoming the boys with drinks and canapés before the start of the Bears in the Basement night. This was a fantastic way to catch up with friends we hadn't seen in months, and to make some new furry pals, and a wee hot pie for the walk home brought the evening to a satisfying close.
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"I know putting together any event, let alone the main October bash, is a lot of hard work and takes a great deal of commitment... Many, many thanks to everyone involved for making October one of the brightest months in the calendar!" |
Saturday morning Brunch at the Regent was a roaring success, where Alan, Colin and the team did us proud with a hearty breakfast, setting us up for the day's adventures ahead. Some boys remained at the Regent and sampled a few more of Alan's prize Real Ales; About 40 of the boys travelled out to Glenkinchie Distillery, replete with toffees, for a tour and a most-enjoyable taste of several malt whiskies; while the majority of boys attended the hot Sauna Party at Steamworks, hosted by the lovely Francis, who made sure that everyone had a good time in the Bear Soup Jacuzzi!
| "It was a fantastic night on Saturday, the best yet!" |  |
The high point of the weekend for most of us had to be the Bear Cave Club Night. The venue certainly had the WOW factor, and with our very own DJs Will and Ian on the decks, the dancefloor was full of hot, hairy sexy boys with their tops off the whole night. The gorgeous Max hosted the 2009 Mr Bearscots Competition and our congratulations go to the winner, James, whose main prize is a photoshoot with Stu Furryfoto (www.furryfoto.co.uk) so we hope to see LOTS more of him over the coming few months. WOOF! After a short speech from Bearscots President Murray, a cheque for £527 was presented to our nominated charity Waverley Care, raised by the prize-draw raffle over the weekend.
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"Thanks for making us feel so welcome and for running a great event - we loved the whole weekend and will definitely be back again." |
Sunday morning Brunch at the New Town, saw a bunch of hungry bears filled to satisfaction, thanks to the sterling work of Tom in the kitchen! Many of the bears chilled out and had a laugh with the quiz and a beer upstairs while a good 100 or so who still had the energy descended to the basement for the BearScotFest's infamous Underbears Party hosted by Mike & Max. The day drew to a close with an afternoon tea of sandwiches and cake and the dishing out of quiz prizes, as boys from out of town began their journeys home, leaving a happy hardcore of furriness to enjoy a private viewing of Edinburgh-set film Shallow Grave at the decadent ( if overly warm!) Brass Monkey bordello-screening room.
The whole weekend just flew by, and from the feedback we've received so far, all the boys had a great time, and are looking forward to next year already!
"We all had a fantastic time... the best bear event I have been to... well done!!"
BearScotFest ’09
Come join us in Edinburgh, Scotland’s beautiful capital city, for our 7th annual BearScotFest weekend, Friday 09 - Sunday 11 October 2009. |
Following on from last year’s
successful event, this year promises to be bigger
than ever and still as friendly and
fun-filled. With our home base in Dublin Street’s New Town Bar, the weekend will be packed with things old and new: As well as our chilled out brunches, busy pub night, lazy bordello cinema night, the ever-popular steamy bears sauna afternoon (discounted entry to BSF09 attendees), Mr BearScots competition, Underbears underwear party, and chilled out cabaret/games afternoon, we have also arranged a very special private tour of the local Malt Whisky Distillery (for which there is an additional charge), and of course, our fantastic Saturday night Party which will be held in The Caves, one of the city’s most exclusive nightclub venues and will include sounds from our very own hot and sexy DJ Mishka. |
Add to this lots of food and drink promos, the beautiful city, and the friendly sexy local bears and you have a weekend not to be missed! There’s something for everyone, and a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and to make some new ones - and the whole weekend is only £22.50!
Programme:
- Friday 09 October
- Registration Desk opens from 1200 hrs
- Welcome drinks & canapes
- Bears in the Basement
- Saturday 10 October
- Bears Brunch at The Regent
- Steamy Bears Sauna or Glenkinchie Distillery Tour
- Bears in the Caves Club till 3am.
- Sunday 11 October
- Bears Brunch at the New Town
- Underbears Party or Bear Lounge with Afternoon Tea
- Bearflix at Brass Monkey
(NB BearScots reserve the right to make changes to the programme as deemed necessary.)
Registration:
An easy, and hopefully painless, process! Just follow the link to our registration page.Here you can register, get all the information you need, pay securely online using a credit card and print off your confirmation. Simples!
When registering, you will be asked to supply an email address and choose a password which allows you access to your booking online. You can book just for yourself, your partner or a group of friends all in one go and remember that because our system is flexible you can access your registration at any time using your email address and password to make changes such as booking up for the optional activities, change names, add new friends to your booking, request help with accommodation or transport or pre-order our exclusive Bearscotfest09 merchandise which will be available soon.
Accommodation And Travel:
If you’re not staying with local friends and furballs, Edinburgh city centre offers a wide range of accommodation ranging from small B&Bs, apartments, and hotels from budget to 5-star boutiques.This year, BearScots has negotiated rates and made a block bookings at a city centre hotel. We also have a list of recommended hotels, including gay-owned and gay-friendly establishments.
We are also happy to offer assistance with booking transportation. Through our contacts in the travel industry, we can offer great rates on flights, train, and car hire... or if you would like to extend your stay in Scotland and make a holiday of it, we can do that too!
For information and assistance with accommodation and travel, please tick the box on the registration page and we’ll be in touch in due course.
Alternatively, if you’d prefer to do your own thing, check out the City of Edinburgh Tourist Information website at http://www.edinburgh.org, or try http://www.laterooms.com or http://www.expedia.co.uk
.
Welcome:
The BearScotFest registration desk, staffed by your furry friendly BearScots team, can be found in the New Town Bar, our base for the weekend, and will be open from 12pm on Friday. Just bring along a copy of your confirmation and you can collect your welcome pack containing your pass to the whole weekend events; a full detailed program of what’s happening and where; handy maps and local information; contact details; and lots of BearScotFest goodies.Queries:
We will be available to help throughout the whole event but until then, if you have any questions, queries, or problems please contact us at events@bearscots.org.uk and we’ll do what we can to make BearScotFest 2009 fun and memorable for you!BearScots BBQ in August
Our annual BBQ heads north this year to Banff on 15th August! |
This year we are pleased to announce a change of
venue for our annual BBQ which will be in
Banff...approximately a 2 hr 30 min drive north of
Edinburgh and Glasgow. Our genial and generous hosts, Scott and John have upped sticks in the last 12 months from our traditional haunt in South Queensferry and are settling nicely into rural life amongst the cattle and sheep! |
You are all invited, members and non-members, bears, their friends and admirers to their pastures in the north of Scotland on 15th August @ 13.00 till late.
We would like to thank our hosts yet again for their generosity in opening up their house to us at BearScots and their friends and hosting what is now our established and popular summer party. They are unable to offer you a bed as they are already taken, however, if you have a sleeping bag they have offered floor space those bears young and supple enough to survive a night on the boards! Alternatively they can offer advice on local available B&B’s to those less hardy. If you have a tent why not spend a night under canvas in their spacious grounds?
They generously provide food and non-alcoholic drink for drivers - but its BYOB for the more hardened drinkers amongst us.
There is no charge for this event, but there will be a collection for Help for Heroes the Charity for soldiers injured on active service that also supports the Erskine Home in Edinburgh.
The address is:
- The Old farmhouse,
- Balchers,
- King Edward,
- Banff.
- AB45 3NA.
It’s on the main Turiff to Banff road about 5 miles south of Banff, and there is plenty of off-road parking. For anyone that doesn’t drive, the 305 Aberdeen to Inverness bus passes their house every hour. The guys need to understand numbers attending etc. so for more information and confirmation of attendance please contact Scott and John on: mcbearuk@aol.com
...Looking forward to seeing you all soon!
Bears In The Hills, Aviemore. 12th - 14th June 2009
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The guys travelled north up the A9 to the MacDonald Aviemore Highland Resort, in blisteringly sunny conditions, for this year’s Bears in the Hills weekend. So warm in fact that some of the group were driven to buy factor 20 for protection. |
| On the Friday evening, after a hearty supper of Lasagne (made by our culinary expert Max) the guys relaxed in the luxurious surroundings, using the time to make new acquaintances before heading off to some of the most comfortable beds that most of them have had the pleasure to sleep in. |
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Sunday dawned with yet another fine day, so after a lazy cooked breakfast and many ohhh’s and ahhh’s about the sunshine and the bunny rabbits outside, one group headed off up the Cairngorm funicular railway for a hot chocolate and more astonishing vocal sounds about the views. Another group descended on the local steam enthusiasts, Forties Weekend extravaganza, where |
Monday saw the group begrudgingly depart for home, the consensus being that the weekend had been a fantastic success, new friendships had been forged and old friendships cemented. There was great discussion and enthusiasm as to where we should venture next year, so suggestions on a post card please!
Oh and don't forget to check out the gallery!
BearScotFest 2008
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A HUGE thank you... to all you guys who came along to BearScotFest08 & made it such a huge success! Events like ours are made special by the lads who attend them, and you made this one really special for us! If you even had half as much fun at BearScotFest08 as we had hosting it, then our job is done! We set out early this year with some clear goals to make this year's event the best ever. We wanted BearScotFest08 to be... "friendly, fun, sexy & different to the other bear events in the UK with a strong Scottish flavour!" |
Photos...
The gallery pages are a great way for guys who are thinking about visiting Scotland to see the kind of stuff we get up to. (Or great for spotting boys you snogged over the weekend!)So if you have any photos of the weekend (or any other BearScots event this year) that you would like to share with us, then please feel free to send them to events@bearscots.org.uk.
Raffle...
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Thanks to you bears, cubs and admirers for giving so generously to the Waverley Care raffle We raised a whopping £501! There are still two winning tickets not claimed:
Send us an email or grab us at the next bear night if you're a winner. |
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Next year's date...
Did you miss it miss it this year? Put it in your diary now, BearScotFest09 will be on the 9th, 10th & 11th October 09, including the main event in an exciting new venue! More details later!Thanks again to all you sexy men who came along. We look forward to seeing you at BearScotFest09 or at one of our regular BearScots nights sometime soon.
February BearScots Edinburgh Weekend
Please note that due to an events clash, we've moved the Edinburgh Beary Weekend forward by a week to the 7th/8th February. Normal service will be resumed in March!BearScotFest 2008 Survey
A HUGE thank you... to all you guys who came along to BearScotFest08 & made it such a huge success!Events like ours are made special by the lads who attend them, and you made this one really special for us! If you even had half as much fun at BearScotFest08 as we had hosting it, then our job is done!
We set out early this year with some clear goals to make this year's event the best ever. We wanted BearScotFest08 to be... "friendly, fun, sexy & different to the other bear events in the UK with a strong Scottish flavour!"
Another big thank you to those of you who took the time to fill in our online survey - we'll put up a quick summary of the results soon!
