A SCOTTISH town will become a “playground for artists” next week when the National Theatre of Scotland brings a pop-up festival to Dumfries.

Throughout Friday and next Saturday, a series of “live art experiments” will take place at locations around the town, including street closes, a graveyard and spots around the banks of the River Nith.

The experiments are part of Just Start Here, which the NTS says is intended as a space to “spark new collaborations across art-forms as well as offering a curated and supported platform for bold, vital work to find its feet in front of an audience”.

Following previous stagings in Glasgow and Aberdeen, the two-day festival will take over three spaces in the town: shop-turned-gallery space The Oven, local working men’s club The Railway Club and public arts space

The Stove, which is also the headquarters of the festival’s key local collaborator The Stove Network.

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As well as music from Sue Zuki and Ashanti Harris and discussions led by Nic Green and Stewart Laing, Just Start Here will present works-in-progress performances by Katherina Radeva of multi-award-winning theatre company Two Destination Language, new work from award-winning choreographer Mele Broomes and the latest version of Solway To Svalbard, an audio-visual project by local artists exploring the links between Dumfries and Galloway and the High Arctic.

February 28 and 29, Dumfries, day tickets (2.30pm to 7pm), £5, evening tickets (7pm to 11.30pm), £5.

www.nationaltheatrescotland.com #JustStartHere