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Last Supper: Why the Burns festival in Dumfries has called it a day

News imageBig Burns Supper Singer KT Tunstall with long dark hair and a silver top sings into a microphoneBig Burns Supper
KT Tunstall was among the artists who took part in the Big Burns Supper down the years
Giancarlo RinaldiSouth Scotland reporter

The Big Burns Supper began with a vision of giving Dumfries something to help get it through the long winter nights.

The festival was born around the traditional January celebration of Scotland's national bard - who died in the south of Scotland town - but the event became a whole lot more.

For more than a decade it attracted acts which rarely stopped in Dumfries and Galloway and lit up a wide range of venues - most notably its colourful Spiegeltent.

But now organisers have announced the end of the festival in its current format.

They plan to continue instead with a range of other projects, including a carnival, choir and a lights festival.

News imageBig Burns Supper A view of some people doing Scottish country dancing in a large tent-like building with a big crowd looking onBig Burns Supper
The Spiegeltent venue was put up in Dumfries for a number of editions of the event

The first edition of the Big Burns Supper (BBS) took place in 2012 and was made up of 80 events covering music, dance, comedy, theatre and art across 40 different venues.

The two-day programme kicked off with an outdoor spectacular on the banks of the River Nith.

"I hope we can be the springboard to bring more culture and shows and comedy," the organisers said at the time.

By the following year, Deacon Blue, Dougie MacLean and Eddi Reader were among the acts announced and the Spiegeltent was brought to town for the first time.

They were followed by acts including Big Country, Mull Historical Society, Nina Nesbitt, Hue and Cry, the Undertones, Black Grape and the Bay City Rollers as the festival began to grow in scale and ambition.

By 2015 it was a nine-day event with 100 shows and a Burns Night Carnival taking the celebration to a "whole new level".

Alongside acts from around the UK and beyond, its own burlesque show - Le Haggis - drew in big crowds.

It brought a buzz to Dumfries at a time when the streets were normally as quiet as the mausoleum where Burns has his final resting place.

News imageBig Burns Supper A man with dark hair and a beard and a rose tattoed on his shoulder points at the camera with a sign saying Le Haggis lit up behind himBig Burns Supper
The Le Haggis show proved a hit over the years

However, it was not without its issues along the way.

Complaints surfaced about the time being taken to pay acts in 2015.

By 2017, the Spiegeltent was gone - temporarily - but the festival was still attracting big names. Lulu helped kick off proceedings at the Easterbrook Hall.

A couple of years later, BBS was celebrating a "string of sold out events" which had provided a "vital boost to the economy" in and around Dumfries - including performances by KT Tunstall and Frank Turner.

After the Covid pandemic, however, things proved more problematic.

A lockdown edition was staged with Janey Godley at the helm but it was not until 2023 that an in-person event returned.

News imageStuart Walker A parade follows a space themed carnivalStuart Walker
Organisers will now concentrate on a carnival instead of the festival

Executive producer Graham Main said the events industry had taken "a bit of a beating" and a more "streamlined" programme was put on at the Loreburn Hall.

More bad news was to follow as a decision on the lease of that site went against the festival in June 2023.

And a year later the BBS was cancelled after failing to secure funding from EventScotland.

The festival took place in 2025 and 2026 - but organisers have now announced that it will not return.

Looking back, Main said the end of the festival and a change in focus had been on the cards for a while.

"We think that the BBS peaked around 2019 and 2020 and as a result BBS was mostly independently funded," he said.

"It relied upon our local community and visitors spending money at the bars and spending money on tickets.

"When that started to disappear it placed the programme at risk so we had to start thinking about different ways of working."

That led to the decision to concentrate on the carnival and lights events - rather than bringing performers to town.

Nonetheless, the memories of its bustling venues giving some much-needed action and energy to Dumfries in the middle of the winter will live for some time to come.