Big Burns Supper dates set for a 9 day Festival in 2015

Sell out Shows Le Haggis and Hamish make a triumphant return and are on sale already.

Following the huge success of the 2014 Festival, the International Festival will run over two weekends with the return of the Burns Night Carnival and the popular Spiegeltent in January 2015.

In just three years the Festival has developed an entirely new audience who are interested in celebrating Burns Night in a modern way, which runs across different venues throughout the regional capital - Dumfries.   

Big Burns Supper - Homecoming Parade 2014 (photo - Colin Tennant)

Independent research conducted as part of the economic impact of the Year of Homecoming 2014 - has revealed that it is not just local people who are coming out to take part.

At this year’s Festival – audiences soared to just over 14,000 – with over 15% of those visitors coming from outside Dumfries & Galloway.

With the recent announcement that the festival has become the beacon event for Dumfries & Galloway – the local authority has committed three years funding to the development of the Festival.

Two Festival Productions will run throughout the entire week, with incoming work at selected nights throughout the Festival. 

Big Burns Supper - Le Haggis 2014 (photo - Colin Tennant)

The Award Winning Le Haggis is back, as well as Hamish the Haggis - both running from the 23^rd – 31^st January, with other acts expected to be announced in the coming months.

Graham Main, Festival Director, said:

“The reality is that the almost all of our Spiegeltent shows sold out last year, breaking all of our box office records and this has given us confidence to know that our festival audience is truly hungry for even more. Our Festival team are now working year round to deliver a dynamic and cutting edge programme of events, including planning for the six months work we do in schools throughout the area so that our Festival is able to become an international magnet for Dumfries”

Maureen Farrell, Chair of Big Burns Supper, said

“From a spark of an idea four years ago Big Burns Supper has grown phenomenally to an annual community celebration of fun that local people are already anticipating will bring a glorious start to 2015.  More than 2000 people came to Dumfries from outside Dumfries and Galloway to celebrate Robert Burns in 2014, bringing fresh money and jobs to our community.  Big Burns Supper 2015 looks like being an even more exhilarating festival.  What an exciting time it is to be living in Dumfries!”