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The Doon Toon Army Needs You!

Kevin Reid - Creative Producer for Midsteeple Quarter Project

The Midsteeple Quarter Project is looking for members of the public to join them in taking back control of the High Street and be part of practical projects and practical improvements for the town by joining the ‘Doon Toon Army’.

Kevin Reid, Creative Producer for the Midsteeple Quarter Project, is hoping that all the various community groups working hard around Dumfries will join together and form a civic army which we are calling the ‘Doon Toon Army’. Power in numbers as it were, with the outlook of working together to rejuvenate the failing High Street through events, street cleans, painting and redevelopment.


The Midsteeple Quarter is a means by which local people can once more create a town centre that brings opportunity and prosperity for everyone in our community. Everyone can join – it is something that everyone will own and be able to have an equal say in directing. Kevin Reid and the Midsteeple Quarter team are looking for support from the people of Dumfries to volunteer and be part of their community army, making practical improvements in the town and putting pressure on building owners and the government to ‘Do Right by Dumfries’.

A Community Benefit Launch for the Midsteeple Quarter Project will take place on Saturday 7th April around the Plainstanes by the Midsteeple from 11am -3pm, where members of the public will have the opportunity to learn more about the project or sign up to help in any way they can. They encourage people to get involved, spread the word and be part of making a town we can all be proud of once more.

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The Midsteeple Quarter idea was built on five years of research and consultation with the local community carried out by the local community. Long-term and careful consultation facilitated by The Stove Network, Dumfries High Street Limited and other partners found that there is a wide range of different ideas for what the town needs, but the majority of the responses highlighted the need to bring more people to live back in the town centre. This will create more life during the evenings, make greater demand for services and shops and bring a greater variety and richness to the place.

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News Project Updates

Dumfries Town Centre Plans Showcased at National Event

The Midsteeple Quarter Project in Dumfries has been presented as a case study at a national conference on community land ownership in Glasgow. The event, which took place on Tuesday 6th March, was led by Community Land Scotland – a registered charity which was established as a response to the need for a collective voice for community landowners in Scotland.

Our very own Matt Baker delivered the presentation last week, and commented on new legislation from Scottish Government which has made places with a population of over 10,000 people eligible for community buy outs of derelict buildings and land that is blighting their communities. For years, absentee landlords have been able to hold our High Street to ransom – this national event in Glasgow showed that Dumfries is one of the towns in Scotland that is leading the way for local people to take back control of their town centres.Up until now, communities taking ownership of their land has been a rural affair, with high profile examples such as the Islands of Eigg and Harries and Assynt in the North West mainland. The event on Tuesday addressed the need for urban communities to use the legislation and opportunities of community empowerment to regain ownership of empty builidings on High Streets that are owned by absentee landlords.
The Midsteeple Quarter Project is an example of community-led initiatives and has been working to breathe new life into Dumfries town centre by developing a section of the High Street as a live/work quarter. This project is a response to the desire to re-populate the town centre. Long-term and careful consultation facilitated by the Stove Network, Dumfries High Street Limited and other partners have identified a block of mostly Georgian buildings in the heart of the town centre as the site for this bold initiative that will see local people developing their own High Street.

On Saturday 7th April, there will be a public launch for the Midsteeple Quarter Benefit Society, and everyone in the community is invited to join in the effort to take back control of our High Street.
People can keep up to date with Midsteeple Quarter Project by visiting their website: www.midsteeplequarter.org.

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This is not just a car park.

An evening of short artist films, screened outdoors in our backdoor Greenspace, accompanied by freshly baked pizzas created by Shed Therapy’s Gavin Philips with support from some of our foodie Stovies!

Greenspace Reel to Real
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Our Greenspace project is an ongoing project within the Stove that looks to transform the backdoor area of the Stove creating a warm and welcoming level access to the building, as well as providing bike parking, and options to populate and take over an otherwise disused and neglected space within the town centre.

As part of our first outdoor Reel to Real, we screened a selection of films by local filmmakers, focusing on artists based across Scotland, including:

Emma Dove’s On Another Note
Colin Tennant’s Portrait of an Artist featuring our own Matt Baker
John Wallace’s Dumfries InBetween

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greenspace pizza
greenspace pizza


Thank you to everyone who helped out, and the filmmakers for kind permissions to screen their films. We hope to do more events in our Greenspace later in the year! This event was part of our Rabbie Burns Time – a week of events and activities celebrating the Bard and the Big Burns Supper in Dumfries. Photography credit: Kirstin McEwan

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greenspace pizza
greenspace reel to real
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News

BNW Big 2nd Birthday

Brave New Words Big Birthday 2

Brave New Words celebrates its second birthday at the Stove on the 29th of September at 7PM with an apocalyptic showcase and open mic of new words spoken and sung. Featuring the launch of a brand new zine entitled Not Safe for Work.

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Over the past two years Brave New Words has been a staple event in the town center attracting emerging writers, performers, singer/songwriters, comedians and even magicians It has showcased the biggest names in the spoken word and poetry scene both locally and internationally and continues to run workshops with schools and community groups on creative writing and performance.

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Organizer Martin Joseph O’Neill says ‘It’s been an incredible two years, with some amazing talent on show from all ages and backgrounds. I’m looking forward to what the next year has in store.’ This year its celebrating with an all-out ‘end of the world’ theme and inviting the public to perform or attend in what is set to be a night not to be missed.  Entirely free, Brave New Words is held every last Friday of the month at the Stove in Dumfries.

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News

Nithraid 2017: Coos, clowns and Vikings!

September 9th saw our fifth staging of Nithraid, a fun family event that takes place on and around the river. The daring sailing race, starting from the Solway Firth and sailing up the river Nith was made possible by one of the highest tides of the year. While waiting for the boats to arrive, visitors and families were invited over to The Mill Green to enjoy food, live music on a hand built stage, art activities and Viking fights!

Our lovely Project Manager for Nithraid, Sal Cuddihy, was delighted with how the day went and both her and everyone at the Stove would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who was involved in Nithraid 2017 – whether you were working, volunteering or just came along to cheer on the sailors. This was our biggest and most successful Nithraid yet, and it wouldn’t have been possible without those who supported the event.

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Nithraid is created and produced by The Stove Network and is part of our mission to make creative opportunities for local people to be involved in the future of Dumfries. This year, we had a total of 15 boats take part in the sailing race, with all boats carrying a small cargo which was delivered into the town to complete the race. This year’s winner was David Sleggs who was joined on his boat, ‘Scottish Bluebells’, by Paul Sleggs, and won the race with their sailing dingy.

Visitors to Nithraid were treated to an afternoon of great local food and fun family activities. Local music acts played throughout the day on a hand built stage by emerging artists Blueprint100. Amongst the acts were Kate Kyle, Isla Gracie, Colin James and Stoney Broke. Burgers, hotdogs and drinks were provided by Craig Patterson of Catering Plus, and professional up-cycler, Rose Hall, hosted a workshop on creating bags for life using t-shirts. This year, Nithraid also had a Viking theme, with Longfada Viking Group staging a re-enactment which interpreted the lives of people living by the river around 1000 years ago. Wordsmithcrafts, another Viking themed group, was working with other local groups from the area encouraging ‘have a go’ activities for all the family.

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For the first time, Nithraid also continued into the evening for ‘Nithraid Night Time’. Visitors to Nithraid were invited back in the evening for vegan stew, film screenings, campfires and music provided by local musicians, Fraser Clark and Stuart Macpherson.

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Image credit: Galina Walls

A large crowd of people also joined in with the legendary Salty Coo procession, starting from The Stove on the High Street and finishing at the Mill Green, and were treated to this year’s fun and exciting parade from the ‘Moo Coo Collective’, led by Leo Marsh, Jimmy Russell and Agne Zdanaviciute; a group of young artists living in Dumfries.

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This year, Nithraid was kindly sponsored by the People’s Project. The People’s Project is a non-profit organisation which was set up in 2008 by Mark Jardine to rekindle the meaning of community in Dumfries and Galloway. The project aims to encourage acts of kindness across the region of Dumfries and Galloway through numerous projects and events. Nithraid was also generously supported by Holywood Trust, Barfil Trust and many local businesses.

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For more information and photos from this year’s Nithraid, please visit www.thestove.org/nithraid or visit the Nithraid Facebook page!

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Live Music at Nithraid!

As part of the Nithraid this year, our Nithraid riverside village plays host to blueprint100’s curated acoustic music stage, a beautiful, nautically themed new stage and set created by the blueprint team and Emily Cooper with support from artist and maker John Kingston. Into the evening our Nithraid Nighttime events will take a more ambient approach, with live musical scores into the night.

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Opening this years Nithraid is local based singer song-writer Stoney Broke. Stoney Broke has been busy promoting his energy packed debut  “If It Ain’t Broke…” through gigs in North England and the centre belt.

Preceding our viking battle you can watch the amazing up and coming artist Kate Kyle. Kate has been a regular at Stove events including Brave New Words and also collaborated with the Tinderbox Orchestra in Edinburgh earlier this year playing one of her songs to an audience of 600+ people at The Tinderbox Album launch.

Kate Kyle

Following Kate Kyle you can watch another Brave New Words regular Colin James. Known for his witty banter and quirky presence keep an ear out for the unofficial Nithraid anthem “Boaty McBoat Face.”

Colin James

Launching over the past year local guitar teacher David Bass started his under 18 acoustic afternoon – which takes place on the last Saturday of every month at the Stove – to offer a stage to young performers looking to get their foot in the door in the local music scene. We are delighted to announce that one of the performers playing this years Nithraid will be Taylor Nelson. Taylor recently played this years Youthbeatz event and is set to be one of the artists to watch in the future.

Fraser Clark

Our Nithraid Nighttime will feature performances from bassist and composer Stuart MacPherson, and jazz pianist and composer Fraser Clark. Stuart most recently worked with the Stove on his commissioned Flight piece last autumn and has been involved in numerous projects ranging from the highly acclaimed orchestration of Martyn Bennett’s ‘GRIT’ by Greg Lawson to his work with singer/songwriter Emma Gillespie (Emma’s Imagination). Fraser Clark’s EP From the Depths launched at the Stove at the end of 2016, and his work has been performed by a variety of professional musicians, including The Scottish Ensemble, organist Kevin Bowyer, cellist Robert Irvine and local Dumfries amateur choir, The Balliol Consort.