Big Burns Supper is returning to Dumfries
The team took a year out to plan.
The Big Burns Supper is returning to Dumfries in January with its best programme yet, say organisers.
The event team took a break last after the Scottish Government withdrew the winter festival fund and instead, decided to focus on remodelling their activities schedule.
Now, they have come up with a new programme with a unique twist.
The usual dinner parties will still be available but will now be the world’s first to host an underwater Burns Supper.
Executive Producer Graham Mane says: “When you get given a headset, you’ll be interacting with a show that’s been specially recorded that you can listen to when you go about your swim, and you can basically experience a burns supper underneath the water.”
He jokingly adds: “When of course you come out of the pool, you’ll be given a haggis pie because that would be difficult to eat underwater.”
There will also be two versions of a Burns supper on a bus – one for children and one for adults – that will take you around Dumfries to Burns-related sites where guests can eat a traditional haggis, neeps and tatties meal.
Main hopes this will be the fastest-moving Burn’s supper on the globe.
He wants next year to be more inclusive for everyone: “Our Burns night is quite different from everyone else’s because, for us, Burns night is a celebration of culture with Burns at the heart of that.
“But we’re definitely as well have been a lot more interested in what other people contribute to that, what other cultures can contribute to that, and what people can share as well.”
Aside from what else the team have planned, they hope that because of the time year this is, it will help tackle isolation:
“It’s brilliant that Burns Night takes place then because we’ve got fewer people coming to the region then, but more importantly, it’s also the time when we’re most likely to feel a bit depressed because it’s after Christmas. You know, when we get to January, it’s really dark so the Big Burns Supper can be someone’s light in a very cold month.”