Suffering from withdrawal symptoms from last weekends Nithraid? Never fear, there is another opportunity to join us as we make the journey to Wigtown Book Festival on Saturday, 27th of September. And we’re not just taking the A75 from Dumfries. Stove members are each making their own journeys the the former county town with its inheritance of martyrdom in Covenanting times and its modern booktown status, once the central crossroads in trading routes and pilgrimage routes through the West of the region.
First off Mark Zygadlo will be hoping for a little more wind than on Nithraid day as he and a flotilla of intrepid sailors make the journey across the Cree from the Ferry Bell at Creetown across the water to the old Wigtown Harbour. This flotilla is being kept to small numbers for safety reasons but if you wish to join the sailors there may still be an additional space left, please get in touch asap to Mark: [email protected]
Maneuvers 1 and 2, the boats are to be launched from a small slipway alongside the A75 before paddling under the road bridge.
Each boat will carry a small cargo of charcoal made at Creetown Primary School with the help of Phoebe and Will Marshall. This will be used to power Uula Jero’s pedal-powered foundry… but more on that later!
The route follows the Cree before making it’s way up the Bladnoch. The flotilla will be guided by Alan Wykes in his motor who knows the Bladnoch channel.
For more details on the stove network’s Trading Journeys, head across to our project page here
Great weather – great people – great town – great river…..art making places. More than 5000 people were on the Whitesands for the Nithraid over Saturday afternoon – even Alex Salmond turned up at one point. Happy Days!
This is a really quick set of images from the day…..more to follow soon
Photos from The Stove Documentation Team (Colin Tennant, Galina Walls, Kim Ayres, Drew Johnstone) and ‘Our D+G’ Facebook Page…thanks all!!
Stove member Mark Zygadlo is the nautical brians behind the Nithraid…simply would not happen without him. Who knows he might even win one year 😉Boats ready to go at CarsethornLe Mans style racing startOff at a terrifying pace….people watched from vantage points all the way up the 10 mile courseCrowds waiting at WhitesandsThe anticipation was too much for someMeanwhile in town, people were assembling fro the Salty Coo processionThe Salty Coo ProcessionThe amazing Balkan Street Carnival Band was led by Ruth Morris (left) who also wrote the music specially for the eventThe Salty Coo was extra salty this yearWhilst the Salty Coo was coming down the Vennel, the First Minister arrived at Dervogilla Bridge and crossed to the Whitesands…happy chaos everywheremeanwhile on the SandsOur Market was open …the Beauty BoothStove Herald Moxie DePaulitte had the scouts on her stall….they were teaching people knotsDoohame Derby Dolls in the marketUula and Katie’s mobile foundry was working overtime to keep up with demand from people wanting to make Nithraid ButtonsA freshly made Nithraid button and its makerRace tracking central….our very own Will Levi Marshall kept up a commentary throughout the day, with information supplied by the Dumfries and Galloway Radio UnitWhitesands shore – our scale model of the Nith had model boats showing the current standings in the raceThe Wheel of Hope was a chance for people to be part of a collective vision for ScotlandMeanwhile the crowds at WhitesandsThe Salty Coo waited for the boats from its vantage point atop the CDM (Coo Delivery Mechanism)The winning boat arrived! (Skippered by Roger Blamire)Each boat carried a piece of cargo up the Nith – they finished the race by delivering their packageThe dunking of the Salty Coo – Josh for the winning boat – with comely assistants Bill Barlow and Robbie ColemanA crew of intrepid Nithraiders after finishingSalty Coo heads off down the Nith dissolving as it goes
By far the most difficult part of the whole thing has been finding enough young musicians to take part. We had the idea of a Balkan style street carnival band. To sound like that, one needs a few brass/ woodwind instruments, which turn out to be like hen’s teeth in Dumfries and Galloway! However we have a few now, including a euphonium, a trombone, some clarinets and some saxophones. We also have fiddles, accordions, flute and percussion. So it should be very lively!
To hear it at it’s best, join the parade through Dumfries from 1.30pm this Saturday, or see the band perform the full piece on our stage on the Whitesands later in the afternoon.
Writing music for transposing instruments, eg clarinets, saxophones, euphoniums is full of interesting challenges. For example, if I want everyone in the room to play the note ‘C’, I have to tell fiddles, flutes, accordions etc to play ‘C’. But I have to tell clarinets and euphoniums to play ‘D’, and I have to tell alto saxophones to play an ‘A’. This can lead to confusion, as I’m sure you can imagine.
But once everyone has worked out what the notes are, it’s a truly wonderful sound, loud and powerful. For most of the people involved, this is a very different kind of music to what they normally play, so it’s a great opportunity for everyone to try something a bit different.
Writing it was a lot of fun. We usually start with an idea for a melody line, then once that has become fixed, find some nice chords that work with it. We often then record that, which gives something to try different harmony parts against. We adapt the parts to suit the players that are involved. We’re very pleased with how the Nithraid music has come out, it will work well for a parade.
Ruth Morris and Gavin Marwick are part of the Stove’s Nithraid team, working to develop and grow the procession that will see the salty coo carried through the streets of Dumfries and down to the riverside where it will take pride of place over the River Nith to welcome in the arriving boats. This year’s Nithraid takes place on Saturday, 13th of September. A dangerous dinghy race from Carsethorn upriver, the boats will arrive in the centre of Dumfries with the high tide at approximately 3.45pm. There is a lot going down on the Whitesands all afternoon, full details on our Nithraid page here.
If you’ve never been to Guid Nychburris before, it’s too late – you’ll have to wait until next year. The annual event, which celebrates the 1395 Royal Charter for the Burgh of Dumfries, has become a regular in The Stove calendar (previous exploits here and here).
Drawing inspiration from the ‘original’ Charter (an update from the earlier 1186 Charter), which is read out on Guid Nychburris Day, The Stove embarked on the ambitious task of writing a new ‘People’s Charter’ for the town, inviting input and inclusions from community groups, organisations and individuals living, working and inhabiting Dumfries. Where the original Charter granted land and fishing rights, Charter14 set out a declaration, of values for the future prosperity of Dumfries. “Dumfries is what we all make together.”
We were overwhelmed by the response to the idea with contributions coming in from all walks of life – all underlining the depth of felling that people have about Dumfries. The first draft of Charter14 was compiled with the help of local writer and lecturer Dave Borthwick from the contributions of the public and was unveiled in grand fashion, with the Dumfries Fountain as the centrepiece on Saturday with lots of help and the handy adage ‘Just Add Water’….
Thanks to Mike for all his work on the Fountain’s new structure!
The text on the banners around the fountain changed colour when they became wet….buckets were filled from the fountain and people were invited to hurl wet sponges at the banners to reveal their message.
Charter14 is not intended as a finished document. Like the original, revisited and amended – The Stove invited Doonhamers from across the town to add their mark; editing, adding and signing over 150 variations of the new charter over the course of the afternoon.
The 1395 Charter was venerable sealed with the town seal, also celebrated in the Guid Nychburris festivities, and Charter14 was no different, with it’s very own seal created by artist David Ralston.
The project prompted discourse late into the evening, around notions of authentication and validity, as each charter was signed by a unique signatory, ranging in age from 5 to 85, including everyone from local politicians, to the Queen (of the South)’s attendants, and passers by.
The Stove has been absolutely overwhelmed with the amazing response to #MakingDumfries and the Charter14, and would like to sincerely thank everyone who has contributed to the Charter, joined in on Saturday, helped facilitate the day and worked from our studio-in-exile in the run up to the event.
Members of The Stove Network are gearing up for Guid Nychburris again. We have been involved in the festivities for the last 2 years and are finding it a brilliant opportunity to work with and talk to people in Dumfries about the future of the town.
Recently we have been inspired by some of our researches into local movements of people working together to make the places that they live in better by thinking creatively and taking practical measures like pooling skills.
Guid Nychburris celebrates the granting of a Royal Charter to the Burgh of Dumfries in 1395. We thought it would be interesting to speculate about the sort of Charter the people of Dumfries might grant themselves for the future prosperity of the town.
For absolute clarity…this idea of a popular Charter is NO way ‘official’ – it will have no formal status at all…it has not been ‘commissioned’ in any way. A group of local artists just thought this could be an interesting contribution to the conversation about the future of the town.
We plan to launch the Charter on Guid Nychburris Day (21st June) – getting people to help us ‘unveil’ it in a typically Stoveish manner and offering people special memorial copies that they can also add to and edit as they choose.
We are getting in touch now to invite you to contribute to the new Charter – our idea is that the Charter should focus on people and what is important to quality of life… to paraphrase the US constitution ‘ Each Citizen covenants with the whole people and the whole people covenants with each Citizen that all shall respect certain principles for the common good.’
The Stove already has long standing partnerships with groups and individuals working in these areas – over the next couple of weeks we will be asking people to help us come up with a phrase (20 words max) for their particular area of interest that we can add to the new Charter.
We propose that the Charter begins with the statement that:
We promise each other that our making together will be shaped by these values, for the common good
Our idea is that this opening is followed by a series of statements about how the town regards the following:
Young People
Diversity
People with disabilities
Enterprise and opportunity
Culture and creativity
Heritage
Environment
Belief
Civic society and local democracy
This is also a completely open invitation to anyone with an interest in this project to take part….please either leave a comment at the bottom of this post, drop us an email at [email protected] or contact us through Facebook or Twitter.
Also let us know if you are interested to be involved in being part of the project team to bring all this to fruition for Guid Nuychburris Day and beyond
We are not intending crediting individual contributions on the Charter itself – but we would hope to list everyone involved as part of the project documentation. Please include with your contribution the way you would like to be credited or a confirmation that your contribution should be anonymous
The third Big Burns Supper (BBS) Festival really found its stride this year – there was a palpable feeling that the toon had taken BBS to its heart and was joining in at every turn. Big respect to the festival team and to Doonhamers everywhere!
The Stove joined in too – it has now become a bit of a tradition for us to contribute something of the outdoor ambience to BBS (not quite sure how we ended up with that job at a festival in January!). This year, we staged the Big Burn – but before we get to that, there were a couple of other wee Stovish things to enjoy. We made a lantern for the procession:
The Stove’s ‘Bunch of Balloons’ Lantern – Made by Danae Marshall, Iain Gisbey, Hayley Stephens, and Sara Redden – Is Seen Here at the Front of the Homecoming Parade, Carried by Hayley and Sara and Ably Assisted by Sara’s Daughter, Daisy.
Katie Anderson made her own installation ‘Close Enough’ for the close next to The Stove:
‘Close Enough’ by Katie Anderson – Domestic Wallpaper Designs, Stretched and Interpreted in UV Paint, with an Accompanying Soundtrack of Environmental Sounds and Spoken Word.
The idea of The Big Burn was dead simple – to tell folk that we were making a bonfire in the middle of the High Street and see what happened. We hoped to create a place where people could hang out for a while and warm themselves, bringing a touch of the familiar bonfire vibe into an unfamiliar setting and seeing what unfolded.
Will Proved His Mettle As Firestarter General.
No Barriers…No Problem.
The first addition volunteered for The Big Burn came from Phoebe Marshall, who brought along hazel twigs, marshmallows, and chocolate biscuits. Toasted marshmallows, sandwiched between two chocolate biscuits, make a s’more…
Children Roasting Marshmallows for the Flames.
Regular Marshmallow Action on the Flaming Logs That Stood Around the Fire.
Extreme Marshmallow Toasting.
The next unexpected addition was the arrival of the Cairn Chorus, who were led to the Big Burn by Wendy Stewart. They sang beautifully for 20 minutes, including the most emotionally stirring version of Auld Lang Syne I have ever heard. The fact that we were sitting around a fire in Dumfries on Robert Burns’ birthday was lost on no one.
The Cairn Chorus at The Big Burn.
The next intervention around the fire was the arrival of a troupe of mysteriously masked dancers:
Dancers in Black and White at Top Left.
There were no clues at all as to the identity of the dancers – and if anyone knew, they weren’t giving anything away. They melted back into the night just as they had arrived.
One of our Turkish neighbours played a bit of drum and danced briefly. Tatties were baked and eaten, and tea was enjoyed. Then the Dumfries & Galloway Fire Service arrived and offered to help us put the fire out – who could refuse a handsome fireman with a hose?
Dumfries & Galloway Fire Rescue performing at The Big Burn.
And that was that, really – except that the 20 or so folk who were still around the fire all helped clear away the Big Burn. A human chain was formed, and 1.5 tonnes of bricks were moved behind The Stove. In under one hour from the fire engine arriving, there was no sign at all that anything had happened in the square that night – apart from some very happy memories.
Thanks to everyone who made The Big Burn such a success – great craic and a lovely time spent with old friends and new. We have a feeling this just might become a Big Burns Supper regular feature. Maybe we’ll even be allowed an even bigger fire next year!
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