THE Big Indy Night In by the Aberdeen Independence Movement (AIM) is back, and The National has a special offer for our readers ahead of the event.

AIM’s big annual event takes place on the evening of September 9, kicking off at 7 pm, and bringing three hours of entertainment including a music performance from Iona Fyfe, speeches from SNP president Michael Russell, Anum Qaisar-Javad MP, Karen Adam MSP, Kirsty Blackman MP and Maggie Chapman MSP. The evening will also see Theo Forbes chat with Aberdeen South MP Stephen Flynn on politics, life and football.

AIM has been busy, and last week were recording a panel discussion with Neil Gray MSP and Julie Hepburn looking at the findings of the Social Justice and Fairness Commission. The panel, hosted by AIM co-chair Fatima Joji, gives a great insight into the Commission’s report and how it could be the backbone of the next referendum campaign.

The Big Indy Night In will also have musical breaks, and AIM have been permitted to use Gary Innes’ Manran music back catalogue and Celtic techno combo group IDMacG, whose music features on the event promo film, which can be seen here:

The evening might yet have more guests, with one or two still to confirm.

AIM co-chair Jack Gillies said of the event: “We’re excited to build on the success of last year’s pre-conference event. Last year, like everyone else, we were hit by the unexpected and unprecedented disruption that came from Covid.

“Over the past year and a bit, we’ve adapted and innovated in ways we’d have never even thought possible a couple of years ago and can happily say that our membership has enthusiastically embraced our ambitious pivot to digital campaigning. This year’s Big Indy Night in is shaping up to be our best event yet, and we feel it could really bring together everything we’ve learned about how to put on properly entertaining and engaging digital events.

“We really hope that we’ll be able to safely put on big in-person events again soon, and we’ve got some pretty big ideas about bringing together the digital and the physical – specifics on that are top secret for now, but you can expect to hear more on that very soon.”

.This year’s event will be hosted on the Balloon virtual events platform, which offers brilliant networking with last SNP conference favourite Nat roulette enabled for the Indy big night in as well as a virtual bar area.

The National is delighted that the Aberdeen Independence Movement has again given The National’s readership a deal for discounted tickets. Tickets for the event are £10, but you can claim a 25% discount using the code AIM Big Night In on joinballoon.com