The Scottish Orange Order is to rebrand its Twelfth of July Orange Walk as a week-long cultural festival and tourist attraction.

The “OrangeFest” rebranding exercise, designed to give a gentler image to the Orange Order and remove the stigma of bigotry, drunkenness and violence historically associated with the parades, has been taken seriously enough to win support from Holyrood culture minister Frank McAveety. VisitScotland has even said it would consider the opportunities of promoting tourism on the back of a proposed “OrangeFest”.

Leading Orangemen believe that turning the annual parade into a week-long festival will attract tourists to Glasgow and help educate people about the organisation.

Police, however, have poured scorn on any suggestion the event could become a tourist attraction, insisting that the “public drinking, urinating and anti-social behaviour” of its hangers-on make it unlikely to ever become an acceptable event for families and tourists.

• Full story at the Sunday Herald.

• Filed under Scottish Christian News Monitor, Sectarianism.