Inverkip gearing up for village-wide celebration as Kip Fest returns

A jam-packed calendar of events kicks off this Friday and is set to draw crowds from across Inverclyde and beyond.

The line-up features a quiz, ‘come and try’ events for bowls and Zumba, a ceilidh, a tea dance, yoga events, a football academy and much more.

While the majority of events will be based at the Inverkip Community Hub, there are also sessions being hosted at nearby businesses, as well as Inverkip Church Hall and Inverkip Bowling Club.

Inverkip Hub’s centre manager Kevin Rodgers told the Tele the weekend was shaping up to be another huge success.

He said: “Every year we get a bit of funding from the council and now we’ve come together in what we’re calling the Kip Village Partnership.

“That’s made up of all the voluntary groups which are in Inverkip and we have links to a lot of local businesses through that partnership.

“When we organise Kip Fest we try to have things on throughout the whole village.

“There’s a small charge for certain things, but most of stuff at the hub will be free.

“It gives people somewhere to go for the day and they can take part in a wide range of activities as well.

“It looks like it’s going to be brilliant.”

Good weather helped to make last year’s edition of the event a huge success and Kevin is hoping that the sun will shine for everyone coming along once again this weekend.

He added: “I think it’s really hard to bring a whole community together, the village used to have a gala day years ago, but this is probably the first time since then we’ve seen all the businesses and the groups linked in.

“I would like to see it not just for Kip Fest, it may well be that there’s a partnership here that can work in other situations too.

“When we meet up as a group there’s a good wee vibe and it works well.

“The people are good and we have that shared responsibility which is good.

“This is an event which can bring in people from across Inverclyde, it’s for anyone who wants to come along.”

Tickets are still available for events like the ceilidh on Saturday night, which will feature a live band, and the tea dance on Sunday morning.

Both of these events are being held in the at Inverkip Church Hall.

There are also still spaces for teams at the quiz, which is being held at Inverkip Bowling Club on Friday night.