Big Burns Supper 'stumbled across' festival model

The executive producer of the Big Burns Supper has admitted they "stumbled across" their festival model.

The ninth edition of the south of Scotland event will be staged in Dumfries early next year.

Morcheeba and Newton Faulkner have just been added to a line-up already including Hue and Cry, Turin Brakes and Grammy award winner Keb Mo.

Graham Main said he believed there was an "appetite for culture" and a desire to celebrate in the town in January.

"I think we stumbled across a really cool wee festival model," he said.

He said they had used Burns Night as their inspiration but then created a programme for their Spiegeltent venue which blended international artists with traditional Scottish music.

"I think we have just got a nice wee model there and that is why it is continuing to grow," he added.

The first Big Burns Supper was held in the town in 2012 with Eddi Reader among those taking part.

"I suppose we are trying to create a whole big Burns supper throughout the town - a kind of metaphorical Burns supper where everyone is gathered round the table and each of the venues plays its part in doing that," said Mr Main at the time.

Since then KT Tunstall, Deacon Blue, Nina Nesbitt, Badly Drawn Boy, Bill Bailey, Lulu and the Bay City Rollers have been among the acts to perform.

The Spiegeltent venue on the town's Whitesands has become its traditional home although it did move for a year to the Crichton site in 2017.

The 2020 edition runs from 23 January to 2 February.