This summer sees the Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival marks its 40 year anniversary.
Scotland's largest rural arts festival has Dani Rae, previously at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, as its new director.
She has programmed 50 performing arts events for this celebratory year covering comedy, theatre, dance, music and spoken word, which will take place in a wide range of venues from village halls and pubs to theatres and arts centres.
Amongst the theatre events are:
- Lost at Sea This tribute to Scotland’s fishing communities has themes of loss, family, and community. It is written by Morna Young and this production features an all-Scottish cast led by Tam Dean Burn and directed by Ian Brown.
- This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing Finegan Kruckemeyer’s contemporary fairy tale sees three sisters, separated in youth, meet up as adults in a story of determination and friendship.
- Team Viking This is the award winning story of how James gave his best friend the send-off he asked for: a full Viking burial. Using storytelling, comedy and live music, Team Viking is written and performed by James Rowland.
- The Red Lion For this battle of wills over the ‘beautiful game’ written by Patrick Marber, Emmerdale and Brookside actor John McArdle leads the cast.
For the opening weekend's High Street Take Over—Picnic at the Plainstanes, audiences will be entertained by musicians and street acts programmed by the festival’s Young Promoters’ Group.
There is also a programme of music events that features Martin Carthy and his daughter, Eliza, and Scottish Opera's pop-up opera truck, whilst the poetry programme observes the UNESCO Year of Indigenous Languages and Year of Conversation with recitals from Lowlands Scots Poetry and what is believed to be the last remnant of Galloway Gaelic.
Music and poetry come together for the closing concert, Home and Horizon, a suite of music, song and spoken word inspired by Dumfries & Galloway. Stars from earlier festivals join the Scottish Ensemble, curated by Alison Burns and featuring Emily Smith, Robyn Stapleton, Wendy Stewart, Aaron Jones, Clare Mann, Jamie McClennan and award-winning writer Tom Pow.
Dance events include a new production from Joan Cleville Dance, and the comedy line-up includes Lucy Porter, Catherine Bohart.
The Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival runs from 24 May to 2 June at various venues in the region