Porty Festival 2026: Reflections & What's Next
Now that Porty Festival is over, we've finally had a chance to properly sit down, catch our breath, and reflect on what was such a brilliant, chaotic, exhausting, rewarding, and genuinely special weekend.
Across two days we had multiple venues, workshops, performances, markets, food traders, community events, live music, outdoor activities, and a huge number of visitors moving throughout Portobello.
Behind the scenes there were constantly moving parts, changing schedules, problem solving, and last-minute decisions — and honestly, none of it would have been possible without our amazing team of staff and volunteers who worked so incredibly hard across the weekend.
There were so many moments that reminded us exactly why events like this matter.
Seeing Portobello Town Hall completely full for our Saturday night live music with Manran as the headliner was a proper goosebumps moment.
Watching younger makers trade alongside more experienced businesses and learn from each other.
Seeing people still turning up and supporting outdoor events despite the very Scottish weather.
Being filmed by More4 for an upcoming TV series.
Welcoming John Swinney to the festival.
It was one of those weekends that felt really important.
Not just for us, but for the wider creative and independent business community here in Portobello.
Of course, with events on this scale comes the reality of how much work happens behind the scenes. Coordinating traders across multiple spaces, supporting volunteers, adapting layouts throughout the day, managing accessibility, dealing with weather, timings, and technical issues — while trying to make sure visitors and traders both have the best possible experience — is a huge undertaking. But every single event teaches us something.
One thing we've built over the years through Support The Makers is experience — understanding what actually works for traders, what customers respond to, how layouts affect flow, how communication can be improved, and how to build events that feel welcoming, supportive, and genuinely worthwhile for small businesses.
And because of that, we're making some changes moving forward.
What's Changing at Support The Makers
It can be easy to fall into the "more" trap — more venues, more dates, more makers. For a long time, growth looked like doing more. But the older we get and the more events we run, the more we've come to believe that Support The Makers has always been about something more intentional than that: a space for makers to connect, share their work, and grow.
So we're going back to our roots.
We'll be reducing the number of markets we host throughout the year to allow us to create stronger, more meaningful events — ones that feel genuinely valuable for both makers and visitors. Rather than constantly filling calendars, we want every date to feel special. Worth preparing for. Worth showing up to.
We also want our markets to feel more like community experiences than simply shopping spaces. Moving forward, we'll be continuing with some of our favourite additions and looking to bring in more, including creative workshops, local choirs and live performances, knife sharpening services, and more community-focused collaborations. We want people to come along not just to shop small, but to spend time, connect, discover local businesses, and enjoy the atmosphere around them.
A Note on Admin & How We Work
Alongside the market changes, we're also revisiting our terms and conditions — and we do this regularly, because the landscape for small businesses is always shifting.
But there's a more personal reason too. If we're drowning in admin and problem-solving, we can't show up with energy, positivity, and creativity at the market. And showing up for our makers is the whole point. Our terms exist to set clear expectations — so you know exactly what you're getting, and what we ask of you, when you join us. That clarity protects everyone, and it means we can spend less time chasing and more time creating.
We'll always communicate changes clearly and give makers plenty of notice — because we know that running a small business means having a lot to keep track of already.
Thank You
More than anything, we just want to say thank you. To our volunteers, traders, performers, organisers, visitors, and wider community — thank you for supporting what we do and continuing to believe in the importance of independent businesses, creative communities, and local events.
Weekends like Porty Festival remind us exactly why we started Support The Makers in the first place. And we're really excited about where things are heading next.
Carmen x