RUNNING between January 24 and February 3 is the Big Burns Supper, the world’s biggest contemporary celebration of Robert Burns. The historic town of Dumfries is host to this eighth edition of the festival, which was created in 2012 as a “coming together of people and culture” as well as celebrating the life and poetry of Burns, who lived in Dumfries from 1791 until his death in 1796.
Among the music acts appearing at the 11-day festival are Scottish star KT Tunstall, indie rocker Frank Turner, contemporary folkies The Peatbog Faeries, and funk and soul DJ veteran Craig Charles.
A broad diversity of acts continues with a concert from the London Gospel Community Choir, a night of DJs, saxophonists, live bands and circus artists at Ibiza Live and the Hebrides Ensemble, now one of the foremost chamber music collectives in the UK.
The Big Burns Supper features around 150 events, spanning Celtic rock cabaret sensations Le Haggis to events for youngsters such as Baby Loves Disco, Family Roller Disco and Brainiac Live! a live science show based on the multi-award-winning TV programme.
Other names familiar from TV include comedian Ed Byrne, Celebrity Big Brother star Hardeep Singh Kohli and Hans Like A German, the accordion-playing “ultimate showboy” who featured on America’s Got Talent.
Running every Friday and Saturday of the festival is the Big Burns Festival Fringe, “an innovative and challenging programme” featuring emerging artists and new work from more established names. Highlights include the dependably entertaining Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppetry, Alan Bissett’s astute, very funny Moira Monologues and We Know Now Snowmen Exist, a new work with roots in the festival’s Creative Sparks programme which tells the story of four girls who go missing in the Scottish mountains.
On January 25, Burns Night itself, psychedelic rockers Colonel Mustard And The Dijon Five and “undisputed masters of Scottish death reggae” Bombskare join The Peatbog Faeries and Tunstall for a night of partying with comics and celebrity hosts in the iconic Spiegeltent.
Bringing the showbiz glamour a couple of days later will be award-winning singer-songwriter Hazel O’Connor performing songs from classic punk-era film Breaking Glass with saxophonist Clare Hirst and keyboard-player Sarah Fisher. O’Connor was one of a clutch of recently announced acts who will perform at the festival, alongside London genre-hoppers Alabama 3, rock veterans The Troggs, Celtic rockers Manran and The Complete Stone Roses, an acclaimed tribute to the Manchester band who have even been joined onstage by the original band’s bassist, Mani, and have performed alongside New Order’s Peter Hook.
Those last four make up the bill for the Sunday Session, an all-day, all-night festival-within-a-festival which forms the finale of the Big Burns Supper on February 3.
Larry Love, henchman of Alabama 3 since the sprawling collective started making their liquor-drenched meld of electro-blues and country-punk in the mid 1990s, says it will be a night to remember.
“We’re really looking forward to coming to Dumfries and joining in the Big Burns celebrations,” Love says. “We’ll make sure the Sunday Session is a fitting finale to the festival so make sure you still have plenty of energy left and save the last dance for us.”
Graham Main, the festival’s executive producer, said: “Our Sunday Session line-up will help ensure that the 2019 festival ends on a high with some incredible bands set to ensure we have an unforgettable night in the Spiegeltent to close the Big Burns Supper.
“With the likes of Alabama 3 and The Troggs on bill for the Sunday Session we know that anyone who has any energy left after our 11 days of amazing events will be able to dance into the small hours.”
Access is a central value of the festival, which aims to “ensure that audiences of all ages are welcome to celebrate together”. Many events for children and young people are free, such as interactive musical quiz Juke Box Bingo and Youth Beatz Take Over where the country’s biggest free youth music festival takes over the Spiegeltent for a night of live music and DJs.
The festival will conclude with Arcade, an interactive game co-produced by live art agency D-Lux which will see people playing with images projected on to buildings in the centre of the town.
“As well as all the music and comedy stars heading to Dumfries, we’ve got lots more great surprises for everyone to enjoy including performances by community projects and local bands,” Main continues.
“It will be a winter festival and Burns Supper like no other. There isn’t a Spiegeltent programme in the world that beats our artistically diverse and intimate programme, offering local audiences and visitors a warmly authentic winter festival experience.”
Main says the audiences for the Big Burns Supper make for a festival with a big-hearted sense of community.
“2019 marks the eighth year of the Big Burns Supper and we are hugely grateful to our loyal local audiences who support every aspect of the festival, from buying tickets to performing themselves,” he says. “This local support, coupled with the thousands of visitors and new audiences our festival attracts, gives Big Burns Supper its heart. It’s the sense of togetherness, of coming together to celebrate culture in the dark winter nights that Burns himself held dear and which Burns Suppers all over the world seek to mark. We just pride ourselves in doing it a bit differently here in Dumfries.”
January 4 to February 3, Dumfries. www.bigburnssupper.com @BigBurnsSupper
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