ORGANISERS behind the annual Peebles Beltane Festival have launched an online donation page.

The move follows a growing number of residents who wish to help towards the running of the week-long event, but no longer wanted to use cash or cheques.

Vice chairman Paul Spence told the Peeblesshire News: “We wanted to move forward into the digital world and provide the public with a number of options to help contribute to the running of Peebles Beltane Festival.

“With more and more people having online access, the Beltane Festival wanted to provide a way to donate to the Beltane, but at the same time be thanked for their donations and considered as a Patron.

“One of the challenges we had was that many of the online donating pages, charge a hefty administration fee and a monthly cost to host the donation page. After some research we decided to use the services of BT.”

The Beltane fundraising is still open to donation via the more traditional methods of cash and cheques.

But it is hoped the online service will be attractive with its ease of use.

Mr Spence added: “The people of Peebles both here and living away are very generous in their support of the Beltane. We wanted to ensure that their generosity went to our festival and not to elsewhere.”

Supporters of the Beltane Festival can donate online at: https://mydonate.bt.com/events/beltane/450502