PARTICIPATE
applications for THE 2025 Festival are NOW OPEN
Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival is the largest free heritage and cultural festival in Scotland and a much-loved celebration of the city’s architectural gems, history, and local communities attracting over 30,000 visits per year. Over 100 buildings and sites across the city annually open their doors to visitors each September, offering a wide range of free activities, including walks, talks, tours, children’s activities, and more. It is a community-driven festival and opportunity to showcase your activities and assets, connect with local audiences and visitors, support the festival’s mission to inspire civic pride, and highlight Glasgow as a culturally vibrant and sustainable city.
WHAT YOU NEED KNOW
Would you like to take part in the 36th edition of Glasgow Doors Open Days? Do you have a building to open or a trail, event or resource in mind you would like to share as part of a 4-day long celebration of Glasgow’s heritage? We would love to hear your ideas! Please find below some key information about the festival this year and how you can participate:
- WHEN: Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2025 will run from Thursday 18 – Sunday 21 September
- WHERE: Our Festival Hub will be hosted by the University of Glasgow at the Advanced Research Centre (ARC), 11 Chapel Lane, Glasgow, G11 6EW
- THEME: Glasgow: the visionary city
Our GDODF 2025 Theme Guide contains information and suggestions for how your organisation, building, venue, space, or site can embrace our theme this year. As ever, while we encourage participants to engage with the theme there is no obligation to do so, it’s simply a guide to help stimulate creative ways of engaging audiences with Glasgow’s heritage.
- WEBSITE: All listings will be published on the doorsopendays.org.uk run by the Scottish Civic Trust. Our website, glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk, will be used for general festival information.
- BOOKINGS: If your event/tour requires bookings, we encourage you to handle your own ticketing via Eventbrite or equivalent booking system.
NEXT STEPS & TIMELINE
Before submitting your application form, please familiarise yourself with the following documents:
- Privacy Notice For Participants (produced by the Scottish Civic Trust)
- Doors Open Days Community Guidelines (produced by the Scottish Civic Trust)
- Insurances Checklist
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Return completed Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival Application Form 22 June
Please fill in our Application Form and return to doorsopendays@gbpt.org. If you have multiple buildings, events, or trails, please fill out separate forms.We recommend you send images as an attachment in your email to insure better quality.
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Deadline to be included in our A5 printed fold-out festival flyer 22 July
Our festival flyer will be distributed to venues and locations across Glasgow. If you don’t make this deadline, you can still be included in our digital listings.
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Return completed Insurances Checklist 22 July
Carefully read over and complete our Insurances Checklit and return to doorsopendays@gbpt.org.
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Make sure booking pages are live 31 July
If your event or building requires pre-booking, your booking page (on Eventbrite or equivalent platform) must be live by this date.
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Digital programme goes live 1 August
Festival listings will be live on doorsopendays.org.uk.
GUIDANCE
If you would like any guidance on how to fill out the application form or about participating in the festival, please feel free to contact us by emailing doorsopendays@gbpt.org.
We held two Information Sessions via Teams on 10 and 12 June to share how you can be one of our amazing participating venues during Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2025. You can view the slides we shared at these sessions by clicking here.
