Winners Announced in BBS Best Show

From Big Burns Supper

With final attendance figures now in Big Burns Supper organisers have revealed a string of successes for last week’s festival.

They have also announced the winners in the annual contest for the best show and performer of the event.

One top of that, the festival and Barnardo’s Scotland have said a huge “thank you” to all those who made donations to Big Burns Supper’s first ever partner charity – raising over £1,500 for its work with children.

Graham Main, Big Burns Supper Artistic Director, said: “We’d really like to thank all the community groups, performers, schools, volunteers, audience members and others who came together to make this such a huge event. As a proud Doonhamer I love to see our town and region shine. Our final figures are just brilliant – for example we served 5,000 Burns Suppers, had the largest Burns Night carnival in the world and entertained 30,000 people – well up on our original estimate of 26,000. Overall our audiences have just about doubled, which is phenomenal.

Jordyn Armstrong, Fundraising Events Co-ordinator for Barnardo’s Scotland, added:“We are so proud to have been chosen by Big Burns Supper as the first charity partner, and overwhelmed by the generosity of the general public who donated over £1,500, all of which will go towards helping children and young people in the local area.”

BBS 2015 featured around 140 events and shows, in a series of venues, during a nine-day festival of contemporary and traditional culture and a huge public celebration of the birthday of Scotland’s national Bard, Robert Burns, in his beloved town of Dumfries.

Each year judges attend all of the shows to decide on a series of awards. For 2015 the nominations and results were:

Best Show

Nominees:

·         Craig Hill

·         Janis Joplin - Full Tilt

·         Hamish the Haggis

·         New York Brass Band

Winner – the New Orleans jazz inspired New York Brass Band

Spirit of the Festival

This award highlights the artist or show which best embodies the spirit of the festival.

Nominees:

·         Dumfries Community Choir

·         Eden Festival -  opening show

·         Dilton Colthart - Burst
·         Holly Little - Caelaig

Winner - Holly Little of contemporary and traditional Scottish music trio Caelaig

Best Performance

Nominees:
·         Grant Dinwoodie - Le Haggis
·         Justine Squire - Le Haggis
·         Angela Darcy - Janis Joplin - full tilt
·         Sir Leopold Aleksander - Le Haggis

Winner - Justine Squire – aerial performer in Le Haggis 

Graham said: “The awards recognise the sheer excellence of the performers and the shows they put on here. They pitch international and national acts against ones which are home-grown in D&G and what’s been brilliant this year is just how impressed our judges were with Le Haggis, our very own cabaret show which seems to be going from strength to strength.”

Big Burns Supper goes out with a Bang

From Big Burns Supper

Big Burns Supper has already doubled its ticket sales over last year as it prepares for a spectacular final day.

The nine-day festival in Dumfries will be welcoming a series of major acts on Saturday including Hue and Cry, The Vaselines and hit US comedy act Red Bastard. This will be in the mix alongside a series of other performances featuring traditional Scottish music, jazz, theatre, children’s shows and much more.

The expansion from a three-day event last year has proved successful with ticket sales having doubled to more than 10,000. Overall around 26,000 people have taken part in the festival this week.

Graham Main, Big Burns Supper Artistic Director said: “The town has been really buzzing for the whole week and we are really looking forward to our grand finale – it’ll be one of the best days of entertainment we have ever laid on.

“Le Haggis – our locally created cabaret show has been an amazing success, with one sell out night after another. The Can Can girls, strongman and male belly dancer plus all the other acts involved went down an absolute storm.

“It was a big decision to expand from three days to nine but it’s succeeded beyond our expectations. The doubling of ticket sales has really confirmed our position as one of Scotland’s major winter events.

“We’d like to thank the 10,000 who were part of the carnival, the 10,000 who went to ticketed events and the 6,000 more who enjoyed the dozens of free shows and events which we staged at venues all round Dumfries.”

Hector Bizerk play HMP Dumfries

From Big Burns Supper

Hip hop group Hector Bizerk today gave at a free gig for prisoners in HMP Dumfries as part of the nine-day Big Burns Supper festival.

The gig was part of the festival’s outreach work in north-west Dumfries which is getting new groups of people involved with arts, culture and entertainment.

The Glasgow group waived their usual fee and were supported by volunteers from the town’s Electric Theatre Workshop (ETW) which produced the event on behalf of Big Burns Supper (BBS).

Performers Audrey Tait and Louie, and the rest of the group, played from their new Skin and Bone EP as part of a 45-minute show to a group of more than 60 prisoners at the jail.

Singer Louie said: “It’s been an amazing experience to share our music with this guys, they were a brilliant audience.

“And we love coming to Dumfries, every time we come here the place is great for us.

“As soon as we heard about this idea we wanted to do it, the guys here can really relate to a lot of the themes of our music.”

The group also showed their new film The Bird That Didn’t Fly for the prisoners – only the first time it has ever been shown after its premier in Glasgow. The film features music by the group and poetry performed by Liz Lochhead, Scots machar.

Justin Hyslop, ETW associate director, said: “We mentioned to the group that we were doing some work with the prison service and they immediately wanted to get involved. The gig has been a huge success – they just went down brilliantly with the audience.

“A lot of the men in here are looking at pretty bleak futures after they get out – there aren’t many jobs around. We wanted to tell them about all of our work to give people the chance to get involved with the arts and entertainment worlds, and this was a great way to do that and to inspire them.”

The festival also ran a lantern-making class at the prison. This allowed dads to spend time with their children making lanterns which the youngsters then carried in the huge Burns Night street carnival.

Justin said: “It’s difficult to maintain strong family relationships in prison and this was a superb way for fathers to be doing something really positive with their children that they would all be proud of.”

After the prison gig Hector Bizerk went on to perform at the Spiegeltent – the main BBS venue.

Big Burns Supper A Veritable Vegetable Success

From Big Burns Supper

A spectacular Burns Night carnival through the streets of Dumfries attracted at least 10,000 spectators and participants.

The parade was lit by at least 3,000 lanterns – far more than the 2,015 organisers had hoped for in order to mark the 2015 UNESCO Year of Light.

Spectators lined the streets and packed the centre of the town – where Burns lived, loved, revelled and wrote some of his greatest work.

Scottish Government Minister Humza Yousaf MSP, Minister for Europe and International Development, said: “I came to Dumfries with high expectations, but I was absolutely blown away by this carnival. The creativity of the people of Dumfries is absolutely incredible. I have been so impressed and really hope to be invited back next year.”

The procession included dozens of local schools, groups and organisations with costumed dancers and interactive puppets plus:

·       6 large main floats

·       6 bands

·       432 specially made costumes from 20 community artists

·       3,000 lanterns

·       4,000 participants in the parade.

There were an immense variety of costumes – many taking environmental and farming themes for Scotland’s 2015 Year of Food and Drink. They included tattie-bogle scarecrows and also the funeral of a carrot – highlighting environmental destruction. There were also sea creatures, including a 10 foot octopus and a multi-coloured fish. They were joined by bumble bees, seagulls and swans.

Graham Main, Big Burns Supper Artistic Director, said: “Tonight was just astonishing – I think Rabbie Burns would have been astounded to see so many people turning out for such a huge celebration of his work, his spirit and of Scottish culture.”

The carnival has taken months of preparation with the organisers working closely with schools, community groups and many others to plan and create the costumes and the floats.

Around 25% of the materials used in the carnival (for example a lot of cardboard and some of the costumes) are recycled and remodelled from last year. And each year BBS finds ways to reuse materials, for example by donating them to other arts projects.

Big Burns Supper Carnival

From Big Burns Supper

It's hotting up in Dumfries today, as community groups across the town prepare for tonights carnival! It kicks off at 5pm tonight.

Full details on the BBS website

Image: Colin Hattersley. Maxwelltown High School rehearse ahead of tonight's carnival

Disability-led theatre company are looking for Scotland’s undiscovered disabled artists

From Birds of Paradise Theatre Company


After the success of the Paralympic opening ceremony in finding hidden disabled talent, Birds of Paradise Theatre Company are searching Scotland to find undiscovered deaf and disabled performers. Following the critical and popular success of their most recent show Wendy Hoose , Birds of Paradise believe the time is ripe to increase representation of people with impairments on stage and screen.

Garry Robson, one of the company’s Artistic Directors, said “We had a simple question - where are the disabled performers of the future in Scotland?”

To answer that question, Birds of Paradise are launching Looking for Talent (L4T) a large scale outreach project designed to find deaf and disabled people who could be the professional actors and theatre makers of tomorrow. The company are working with partner groups and venues throughout Scotland to deliver workshops during the early part of 2015 building towards an intensive programme later in the year year. Partners include;

Dundee Rep Theatre, Eden Court Theatre (Inverness), Electric Theatre Workshop (Dumfries) and Aberdeen Performing Arts

The first stage of this process will be a roadshow which will visit various parts of Scotland giving an introduction to deaf and disability arts and creative access followed by group workshops and individual auditions auditions for deaf and disabled people interested in theatre and performance. From these events Birds of Paradise will identify a group of individuals to work with them to create a new show written by leading Scottish playwright David Greig.

Robert Gale, the company’s other Artistic Director, said: “We are eager to identify a pool of highly talented disabled people from around Scotland who are ready to develop their skills and experience and become readily employable performance and theatre artists for any company in Scotland, the UK or further afield"

Garry Robson said: “The day will introduce participants to the work of professional deaf and disabled performers in Scotland and beyond and demonstrate how this influx of new artists and the imaginative application of access is changing the face of modern theatre and performance.”

Bird's of Paradise Theatre's In an Alien Landscape

Spiegeltent

Tue 27th Jan, 10am

Free: Must Register - To Book a Place register here

180 min | Workshop

Birds of Paradise are on a talent search throughout Scotland. We had a simple question – where are the disabled performers of the future in Scotland? Birds of Paradise Theatre Company present an introduction to Disability Theatre and Performance. Interested in theatre and the performing arts? Want to try your hand? Garry Robson and Robert Gale – the two Artistic Directors of Birds of Paradise – will be running half day sessions for individuals and groups interested in finding out more about Disability Theatre and creative access.

The day will be in two parts; Part 1 will introduce you to the work of professional deaf and disabled performers in Scotland and Part 2 is a chance to try out new skills. If you identify yourself as being disabled and are interested in the arts, come along and have a go. You could be just the person we’re looking for.

To find out more please email l4t@birdsofparadisetheatre.co.uk

BBS Lantern Parade - Tonight!

From Big Burns Supper

Burns Night will see a spectacular lantern lit carnival wind its way through the streets of Dumfries – the Bard’s favourite town. It’s one of the highlights of Big Burns Supper, a nine-day festival of music, comedy, theatre, cabaret, culture and fun. BBS 2015 starts this Friday with great acts like Nina Nesbitt and Hue and Cry taking centre stage.The carnival, on Sunday 25th, will feature 2015 lanterns in celebration of UNESCO’s 2015 Year of Light.

For people who can’t make it in person the procession will be broadcast live online and you can see it just by going to the Big Burns Supper website .

The carnival, which also has Scotland’s 2015 Year of Food and Drink as a theme, has taken months of preparation with the organisers working closely with schools, community groups and many others to plan and create the costumes and the floats.

Graham Main, Big Burns Supper Artistic Director, said: “It’s a huge piece of work to create a carnival, but it’s great because so many people get involved. “The lanterns will look brilliant and we will have around 2015 of them especially for the Year of Light. But really, nothing could be better than a food and drink theme for a carnival on Burns Night when people all round the world will be thinking about Scottish cooking as they tuck into haggis neeps and tatties.

“We are really looking forward to the event and welcoming people from all over Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland and beyond to be part of a magical occasion.”This year the carnival costumes will include a giant haggis, vegetables and tattie-bogle scarecrows, plus all sorts of creatures from the oceans.

The carnival starts at 5pm on Sunday, 25 January and will be led by a huge lantern which has been made in conjunction with Barnardo’s Scotland, which is Big Burns Supper’s partner charity.

BBS is a festival of contemporary and traditional culture and a huge public celebration of the birthday of Scotland’s national Bard, Robert Burns, in his beloved town of Dumfries. It is also part of Scotland’s Winter Festivals (a programme of events managed by EventScotland on behalf of the Scottish Government) and attracts thousands of visitors from across the UK and overseas.

The carnival is supported by the Robertson Trust, Holywood Trust and Awards for All. Year of Food and Drink Scotland will build on the momentum generated by Homecoming Scotland 2014 with a series of exciting events and activities celebrating Scotland's outstanding natural larder.

This year Big Burns Supper has teamed up with Barnardo’s Scotland as its first ever charity partner. Text BURNS to 70500 to donate £3 to Barnardo’s Scotland.

Sanitise at Big Burns Supper

From Lianne Whitelaw

A woman alone in her bathroom – what does it mean to be clean and what does it mean to be dirty?

Sanitise is a highly visual theatre show coming to Big Burns Supper on Tuesday 27^th January at 1pm. This is first stop in a nationwide Scottish tour, following a successful Fringe run in August where the production won a Scotsman Fringe First Award and was nominated for an Arches Brick Award.

Set in the most private of places, where dirt can be flushed away in an instant, Sanitise is a theatrical journey through the fantasy world of one woman alone in her bathroom. Combining physical theatre, dance, music and illustration, Sanitise is a quirky, imaginative production without words, looking at a part of life we never talk about and follows one woman's quest for domestic and sexual liberation. Disgusted by much of the outside world, her bathroom has become a sanctuary of cleanliness and an unlikely venue for self-expression. But there is something dark living beneath the bath and as her inner and outer life is revealed we discover a woman torn between fantasy and fear as she negotiates her relationship with literal and figurative filth.  What does it mean to be clean and what does it mean to be dirty?

Sanitise was created by two young Edinburgh based artists, Caitlin Skinner and Melanie Jordan, who aim to make bold visual theatre which opens up the audience's imaginations, their sense of humour and ultimately their minds. 

Sanitise will play at Electric Theatre Workshop on Tuesday 27^th January at 1pm, as part of Big Burns Supper. Tickets can be bought at the Box Office at 28 Munches Street or online at here

The Yellow Door celebrates Burns

From Sara at The Yellow Door

Sheila Mullen's Tam O Shanter

As part of this month’s Burns celebrations in Dumfries, the Yellow Door will be holding an exhibition of Words and Pictures in the Queen Street Gallery.

On display, there will be paintings and other art works inspired by or relating to writing and poetry, and vice-versa. This exhibition will include work by Hugh Bryden, Graham Fulton, Sheila Mullen, Katy Ewing, John Threlfall, Colin Blanchard, Kim Ayres and Anne Lindsay.

Literary events and workshops and demonstrations will also take place, including readings from Katy Ewing's recently published anthology of poems: 'Some Strong Harsh Magic'. Cairn Chorus will be singing Burns Songs in the gallery after the Burns Night parade (January 25), and the jazz group Getz will be performing on Sunday,  February 1.

Words and Pictures will run from January 21 to 31st. 

The exhibition runs simultaneously with the town’s Big Burns Supper Festival.

New performance space for Dumfries

From Big Burns Supper

Dumfries will benefit from a permanent new theatre, performance and rehearsal studio as a legacy of Big Burns Supper 2015.

BBS, which is run by the Electric Theatre Workshop, is transforming part of the ground floor at its Munches Street base into an auditorium which can hold audiences of up to 100. It will initially be used as a venue for shows and events during this year’s nine-day Big Burns Supper festival, which takes place from 23-31 January. It will then be made available to the community.

Graham Main, Director of ETW and Artistic Director of BBS, said: “We needed an extra venue for Big Burns Supper events and it made sense for it to be something that could benefit the community all year round. It’ll be great for Dumfries to have a brand new space for shows and events right in the heart of the town.”

After the festival is over Electric Theatre Workshop hopes to organise a year-round programme of events in the space – which is currently being called Studio 1 – as well as opening it up for other groups to use. Graham believes that as town centres decline as places just for shopping it is vital to revive them as hubs for community activity. He said: “It’s really important to make our town centres into lively and vibrant places which the whole community can enjoy. The arts are a great way of doing this and we hope that Studio 1 will bring people together for all sorts of exciting projects.”

This year BBS features 140 events and shows. One highlight will be the Burns Night street carnival on25 January which will feature bands, huge interactive puppets and hundreds of costumed performers. As 2015 is the UNESCO Year of Light one of the main features of the carnival will be lanterns made and carried by people from all across the region. 

The festival is made possible by support from many organisations including Creative Scotland, 8020 and Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Beacon Event Programme.

Alien Lullabies at Big Burns Supper

From Fiona Soe Paing

"Outstanding"  Noise Festival Showcase awards 2014

"Very, very cool!" Vince Clarke, Erasure. 

An Aberdeenshire musician is set to bring her live show to Dumfries with a unique performance as part of the Big Burns Supper Festival.

Fiona Soe Paing will perform a multi-media set with music and visuals from her forthcoming album ‘Alien Lullabies’ at the festival's newest venue, New Performance Space at the Electric Theatre Workshop, on January 30th, in Europe's largest winter fringe festival. 

Fresh from presenting work at London’s global festival of music ideas, Music Tech Fest, and a show at Cineworld for Aberdeen International Film Festival, Fiona will perform with projected animation by New Zealand artist Zennor Alexander in  a hypnotic combination of cinema screening and live gig.

The musician, who has drawn comparisons to Scandinavian songstress Bjork, will combine her blend of off-world electronica and ethereal soundscapes with stunning 3D animations and live vocals to create an immersive and memorable cinematic experience.  Fiona's work was recently rated as  "Outstanding"  in the  2014 Noise Festival Showcase Awards, curated by electronic music pioneer Brian Eno, and her last EP release "Tower Of Babel" was given a Four Stars rating in The Skinny Magazine.
.
 “The chance to perform in Europe's largest winter fringe festival was really something I couldn’t turn down and I’m excited to be bringing something a bit different to what is an incredibly diverse and exciting programme of 
music and theatre events, alongside punk icons The Undertones, and Scottish Hip-Hop heroes Hector Biserk”

The performance of Alien Lullabies will take place at the New Performance Space, Electric Theatre Workshop,  28 Munches Street, Dumfries on Friday January 30th.  Tickets cost £6.50/£4.50 concessions, and are available in advance from the Munches Street box office, or telephone 01387 271820. 

For more info head across to the BBS website here 

Comedy at BBS

From Big Burns Supper

Riotous, raucous, sexy, biting and fun – Europe’s largest winter fringe promises laughter for all in celebration of the Bard

There will be a feast of comedy at Big Burns Supper 2015 with Craig Hill and Red Bastard at the head of the table.

BBS is a nine-day festival of contemporary and traditional culture and a huge public celebration of the birthday of Scotland’s national Bard, Robert Burns, in his beloved town of Dumfries. It is also part of Scotland’s Winter Festivals (a programme of events managed by EventScotland on behalf of the Scottish Government) and attracts thousands of visitors from across the UK and overseas.

Craig Hill and Red Bastard (Eric Davies) will appear at the main venue, The Spiegeltent which is a 1930s-style circular marquee lined with mirrors and stained glass, which can hold an audience of 500. Other acts playing there during the festival include Nina Nesbitt, Hue and Cry and the Undertones.

Craig said: "I'm just so chuffed to be part of such a great line up of events and what a brilliant idea to have a whole festival based around Rabbie Burns! I love that we're celebrating our n Bard and sharing his songs and poems with as many people as possible from far and wide ... and it's nine days long! Now that's what I call a celebration!”

Eric Davies (Red Bastard) added: ‘’ This night, this moment - it's ours to seize.  By living, by laughing, we honour that great poet.  Can't wait to meet you all. ‘’

BBS features 140 events which are taking place during BBS from 23rd - 31st January. A highlight will be the Burns Night street carnival on 25th January which will feature bands, huge interactive puppets and hundreds of costumed performers. As 2015 is the UNESCO Year of Light one of the main features of the carnival will be lanterns made and carried by people from all across the region. 

For those who like to live dangerously there’s the chance to catch Red Bastard who insists that something interesting must happen every ten seconds … and it will!

He is a seductive comedy monster who garnered a plethora of 5-star reviews for shows at the Edinburgh Festival this year and last. Now he will be in Dumfries to unleash a masterclass in biting wit, mischievous improvisation, and physical prowess.

We also have:    

 Mark Nelson: Uncompromising new show from Scotland’s acclaimed multi-award-winning comedy powerhouse. Star of BBC Radio Scotland’s Mark Nelson’s Guide to Marriage and Daily Telegraph’s Critics’ Choice.

 Le Haggis; The Second Coming: Described as Scotland’s Sexiest Cabaret Show – Le Haggis is jam-packed with international artists, set to a contemporary traditional Scottish soundtrack. 

Comedy Late: A showcase of multi award-winning Scottish comedy talent featuring the best up and coming talent from throughout Scotland.

Comedy Gold: Emerging comedy talent from throughout Scotland.

Stand Up Comedy for Kids (Mark Malarkey): Stand-up comedy on topics of concern to younger audiences, such as sibling rivalry, misbehaving household pets, hand-me-down clothes, what to do if you forget to do your homework, climate change and other silly adult behaviour. Punctuated by comic poems and songs, with sing-along choruses, plus, juggling, how to play a recorder with your nose and other stupid stuff. Bring your best animal jokes for an open mic after the show.

The festival is made possible by support from many organisations including Creative Scotland, 8020 and Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Beacon Event Programme.

Once again BBS has teamed up with other local festivals and promoters to present eclectic club nights which include the Eden Opening Party.

The carnival is supported by the Robertson Trust, Holywood Trust and Awards for All. Year of Food and Drink Scotland will build on the momentum generated by Homecoming Scotland 2014 with a series of exciting events and activities celebrating Scotland's outstanding natural larder.

This year Big Burns Supper is proud to announce that it has teamed up with Barnardo’s Scotland as its first ever charity partner.

DG Unlimited Looks Forward

From Alan Thomson, DG Unlimited, Policy and Development Co-Ordinator

I don’t know if it is the sudden realisation that we are only a fortnight away from the end of the year, but everyone seems to be even more busy than usual, desperately trying to get things finished before the festive break. Traditionally this is the time to look back over the events of the past twelve months, review progress and celebrate success. But is there even time to do this, as 2014 has surely been the shortest year ever. Days might seem endless to children waiting for Christmas, but for those of us well stricken in decades, whole weeks and months pass by in a blur. So I prefer to keep looking forward.

There will be no wearying in January either with nine days of Big Burns Supper to look forward to. The hugely impressive programme even smells good! I think I might give tickets as Christmas presents.

The combination of Unesco’s Year of Light, with its local Clerk-Maxwell strand, and Scotland’s own Year of Food and Drink will surely stimulate some new events and projects for 2015. Although the opportunities offered by the recent rounds of the Regional Arts Fund and the Major Events Strategic Fund to local organisations, individuals and promoters are more likely to ensure that the already vibrant arts and events sector across the region will be further enhanced during next year. As the new incumbent of DG Unlimited’s commission for Policy and Development I am looking forward to ensuring that the voice of our regional arts sector is heard when strategic decisions are made on the awarding of these funds.

BBS' Festival within a Festival in North-West Dumfries

From Big Burns Supper

Big Burns Supper plans a “festival within a festival” to let communities in north-west Dumfries enjoy more of the fun during January’s nine-day event. Acts, including the award-winning Skerryvore folk-rock band and the amazing Canadian vocal group Countermeasure, will put on free pop-up shows in the area. There will also be performances of the Hamish the Haggis children’s show – and much more will be announced in coming weeks.

Today (9, December) saw Provost Ted Thompson launch the initiative, which will also involve an outreach programme to get more young people and adults from Lochside, Lincluden, Summerhill and Stakeford taking part in the Burns’ Night street carnival and the rest of BBS.

Councillor Thompson said: “Dumfries and Galloway Council is fully supportive of Big Burns Supper which is a major highlight of the year and we want to see everyone get a chance to take part and enjoy the fun. Taking the festival to the community is brilliant and it’s great to get more people from north-west Dumfries taking part in the carnival and all that’s going on during the nine days around Burns Night.”

Big Burns Supper 2015 is part of Scotland’s Winter Festivals (a programme of events managed by EventScotland on behalf of the Scottish Government).

As 2015 is the UNESCO Year of Light one of the main features of the carnival will be lanterns made and carried by people from all across the region. The outreach initiative will see 16 lantern making workshops take place across north-west Dumfries.

A free minibus is also being organised to get people to and from the festival so they have easy and environmentally-friendly access to the 140 events which are taking place during BBS from 23-31 January.

Graham Main, Big Burns Supper Festival Artistic Director, said: “Our festival within a festival in north-west Dumfries really sums up the spirit of Big Burns Supper. The whole idea is that it is for the community, created by the community and we want everyone, of every age to have the chance to get involved – no matter where they live.We are really looking forward to announcing which other acts will be putting on performances in north-west Dumfries – and we can promise people that they have some real treats in store.”

Partners taking part in the project include include Building Healthy Communities; YMCA Streetworkz Team; Summerhill Community Centre; Irvine Housing Action Group; DG2 Cafe; Dumfries NW Church; HMP Dumfries; Key Housing; Dumfries Sling Library; CLD Adult Learning (North West Resource Centre), The Big Lunch, Lincluden and Lochside primary Schools, and Maxwelltown High School.

The carnival is supported by the Robertson Trust, Holywood Trust and Awards for All. Year of Food and Drink Scotland will build on the momentum generated by Homecoming Scotland 2014 with a series of exciting events and activities celebrating Scotland's outstanding natural larder.

The festival is made possible by support from many organisations including Creative Scotland, 8020 and Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Beacon Event Programme.

BBS 2015 Full Programme Announced

From Big Burns Supper

Big Burns Supper headed to Leith to launch its full 2015 programme with the news that Scottish singer songwriter Nina Nesbitt and folk group the Peatbog Faeries will be part of the line-up. Burlesque dancers and colourfully costumed carnival characters launched the programme in front of the Burns statue in Leith’s Constitution Street – the statue itself was specially decked in tartan for the event.

The annual Dumfries event, which is expanding from three days to nine – 23-31 January – is a mix of famous names and emerging artists and includes rock, pop, folk, jazz and traditional music alongside cabaret, comedy, performance art and a huge street carnival. It is increasingly popular among visitors from Edinburgh and all across the Central Belt. It also attracts growing numbers from elsewhere in Scotland, the UK and overseas.

Organisers offered a first glimpse of some of the beautiful costumes that are being created for the impressive Burns Night Carnival – which is expected to pull thousands of people onto the streets of the town on Sunday, 25 January. Graham Main, Festival Artistic Director, said: “Big Burns Supper 2015 will be Europe’s largest winter fringe festival. It’s becoming a major event in the Scottish calendar and we’re inviting even more people from across Scotland and beyond to join us for nine days of fabulous entertainment.

“The programme we’ve unveiled today is a rich mix of music and performance that combines popular and celebrated artists with some emerging talent from all over Scotland and the rest of the UK. The festival will be a chance to see rising stars like Nina Nesbitt alongside acts like the Peatbog Faeries, plus others we have already announced like Hue and Cry and the Undertones. Our whole aim is to celebrate the best of Scottish and international culture with shows that will appeal to every taste and age, from the youngest of children upwards.

“The carnival is also going to be even bigger and more spectacular than last year – a real centrepiece of the festival – huge amounts of work are going into creating the costumes and the floats. It’s excellent to be able to give people a sneak preview of what we’ve got in store.”

Big Burns Supper 2015 is part of Scotland’s Winter Festivals (a programme of events managed by EventScotland on behalf of the Scottish Government).

The lantern-lit carnival, with seven large interactive floats plus bands and dancers, will include hundreds of children and adults in a multitude of costumes including sea creatures such as porpoises and a giant octopus, through to angels, Tattie-bogles (scarecrows) and even giant vegetables. It is closely linked to the 2015 UNESCO Year of Light and the Scottish Year of Food and Drink.

Once again BBS has teamed up with other local festivals and promoters to present eclectic club nights which include the Eden Opening Party.


A sample from the full programme

You can see the full Big Burns Supper 2015 programme at the BBS website. It includes around 140 events at 17 venues, and which are a mix of paid or and free to view.

Among what’s on offer is:

Nina Nesbitt, in the Spiegeltent, Friday January 23 at 6.00pm (£22.50). Best known for her 2013 hit single Stay Out, her first album Peroxide was released this year and she is now working on a second. Born in 1994, her music is often about the lessons she's learnt since she first picked up a guitar aged 15. Nina may be an experienced songwriter, a festival veteran and a regular on Radio 1, but she still writes from the point of view of a typical teenager. She has already spent two years putting out EPs, touring the country and steadily building her fan base - her video views stand at more than 20 million and over 130,000 follow her on Twitter.

Peatbog Faeries, in the Spiegeltent, Friday January 30, at 9.30pm (£22.50). Based on the Isle of Skye, the Peatbog Faeries are one of Scotland’s best-known names in contemporary folk music. In 2012 they were nominated for "Best Live Act" at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, having already twice won "Live Act of the Year" at the Scottish Traditional Music Awards. They've taken their own brand of Scottish tunes to audiences around the world, from European festivals, to Asia, Africa, America, Canada and Australia. The Peatbogs have recorded six studio albums, they made their first live release in April 2009 and their latest CD, "Dust", was released on the 8th of August of 2011.

Hector Bizerk were headliners in the Solus tent at this years Wickerman

Hector Bizerk. This live show is something of a cultural phenomenon combining front-man Louie's razor sharp poetry with the incredible tribal rhythms of Audrey Tait and grooving funk bass lines of Fraser Sneddon to create a crescendo of thought-provoking music.

Scottish Dance Theatre (Scotland). Innocence. An exciting opportunity for 0-4 year olds (and their adults) to enter a realm of mystery, fun and adventure. Innocence is a unique performance playroom where the audience explore William Blake’s Songs of Innocence. Innocence invites children to dance on an interactive journey of theatre, story and live music. A beautiful, captivating dance experience.

Hamish the Haggis’s Mini Burns Supper. Even children get to modernise Burns Suppers in their own special way at the Big Burns Supper with their own high energy foot-tapping show, Hamish the Haggis’s Mini Burns Supper, in one of the most interactive children’s theatre shows anywhere.

New York Brass Band. New Orleans inspired Brass Band. Hailing from the ancient streets of York, the band are part of a funky brass revolution that is sweeping the UK. Inspired by Rebirth Brass Band, Soul Rebels, Hot 8, Youngblood and Brassroots, NYBB pack a powerful punch of relentless drums, rumbling tuba and wailing horns… nothing kicks a party into gear like the sound of a smokin’ New Orleans Mardi Gras Jazz Band.


Emerging talent

Isabel Sharman (London). Performance Art. Explores the complicated relationship that women have with their bodies by looking at the way we talk about them - from body hair groups and anti-feminist tumblrs.

Impulse Collective (East Midlands). Theatre. Canterbury Tales. Following their smash hit Exposed at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival, young East Midlands based company Impulse Collective present their anarchic new take on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

Live set from Fiona Soe Paing

Fiona Soe Paing (Aberdeenshire). Performance Art. Alien Lullabies. A live multi-media hailstorm: off-world electronica, surreal animation and live vocals combine to create a unique and compelling fusion of cinema and a live gig.

Stoirm Òg (Edinburgh). Theatre. The Idiot at The Wall. September, 1919. A Hebridean island. Sorcha has returned to her family home, disturbing a prophecy which has long lain dormant.

Caroline Smith (London). Performance art. Birdwatchers Wives. Features Rita Grebe, a seven foot woman who thinks she’s a bird: a Great Crest who wants to nest.

Countermeasure (Toronto) and InChorus (Peebles). Music. Transatlantic Songbook. Double bill exclusively presented at Big Burns Supper Festival. Countermeasure is the new sound in vocal music, known for upbeat blend, sophisticated harmonies, and infectious energy. Led by award-winning composer/arranger Aaron Jensen, featuring 14 of Canada’s top young vocal talents. InChorus is a large contemporary community choir from Peebles. Founded in 2008, they have filled Edinburgh’s Usher Hall and Festival Theatre twice.

All this plus traditional singer Robyn Stapleton, who is BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician of the Year, and The Gallovidians, a small local traditional music group consisting of mainly fiddles and accordions.