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News Project Updates

Wild Goose Festival Returns with Soaring Success

The Wild Goose Festival returned for another year of inspiring and educational family-friendly activities and events. Read about our 2023 Festival below.

The Wild Goose Festival returned to Dumfries and Galloway this autumn, bringing with it a flock of exciting events and activities for all ages. The festival, which ran from October 19th – 29th, is inspired by the annual migration of geese to the Solway Firth.

Over the course of the festival, the public had the opportunity to learn about the incredible journey of these birds, as well as the diverse ecosystems and wildlife of Dumfries and Galloway. The festival also featured a variety of creative workshops, interactive storytelling sessions, and nature walks.

A Celebration of Nature, Creativity and Place

Image by Steve Nicholls
The WGF 2023 Press Call

The Wild Goose Festival is not just about geese; it celebrates both the inspirational journey undertaken by our feathered friends and our deep connection with the natural world. 

This year’s family-friendly program aimed to engage communities through creativity, education, and play, building meaningful relationships and encouraging people of all generations to reconnect with their environment.

With events taking place throughout the region, from Stranraer across to Glencaple, the Wild Goose Festival saw an audience of around 4200 people celebrating the journey of the geese.

A Hub for Discovery and Creativity

Wild Goose Festival Hub in the Loreburne Centre
The Wild Goose Festival Hub in the Loreburne Centre
#KeepLookingUp
Inside the Hub

This year’s Festival Hub opened its doors in a brand new location within the Loreburne Centre in Dumfries. The Hub served as an information point for the festival, as well as an accessible space where a variety of fun and creative activities was hosted.

At the hub, members of the public could engage with individuals dedicated to protecting our natural resources, unleash their creativity with artists, and delve into the fascinating world of wild geese, discovering why these birds make their annual pilgrimage to Dumfries & Galloway.

Around 800 people visited the Hub this year, to see the full programme of events that were available, click here.

A Festival for All Ages

Image by Kirstin McEwan
Image by Peter Jordan

The Wild Goose Festival’s family-friendly program cultivated meaningful conversation between generations and encouraged participants to reconnect with the environment around them.

From seasoned birdwatchers to curious newcomers, the Wild Goose Festival 2023 had a range of events for all ages and backgrounds. To view each of our 2023 events visit here.

A Focus on Environmental Awareness

Image by Kirstin McEwan
Image by Kirstin McEwan

Wild Goose serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of preserving our natural heritage. The conclusion of our 2023 festival Three Sisters – A Story from the Climate Future promoted this sentiment, premiering an immersive audio drama set in 2030 questioning how we will live under the impacts of climate change.

The Stove Networks creative response to this year’s festival was the Keep Looking Up Roaming Exhibition. This exhibition invited members of the public to observe the skies and consider our relationship with the non-human inhabitants of our everyday spaces. The artwork prompted new ways of observing our wildlife and how we impact it, and vice versa.

A Legacy of Inspiration

This year the Creative Spaces team worked with pupils from Laurieknowe Primary School to deliver a series of creative workshops on the migration of Geese and their relevance to the region. Learn more here.

As the Wild Goose Festival draws to a close this year, it leaves a legacy of inspiration and environmental stewardship of the unique biodiversity of Dumfries and Galloway.

The festival’s commitment to engaging communities through art, culture, and nature will continue in 2024.

Visit the Wild Goose Festival website here.

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Opportunities Project Updates

Grow Your Own Event

Grants for up to £500 Available Unexpected Garden – Stranraer

Dandelion is a national community food growing initiative that is coming to Stranraer. It is part of the UK wide UnBoxed Festival; a UK wide celebration of creativity taking place in 2022. The project will see a new Unexpected Garden and event space created on the harbour front with the local community that brings together food, culture, ideas, music and technology, driven by the concept of sow, grow, share.

Our ‘Grow Your Own Event’ grants have been created to give the local community the chance to host their own events in Stranraer’s Unexpected Garden. We will offer groups and individuals up to £500 to programme their own event which should meet at least one of the following criteria:

  • Improving wellbeing (physical and mental)
  • Enabling community participation in the arts
  • Promoting equality
  • Enabling participation in physical activity
  • Responding to the climate emergency and promoting sustainability
  • Increasing community access to the garden
  • Promoting the regeneration of Stranraer

Please note that we cannot accept applications promoting a specific religious faith or political party

Please consider the following when thinking about your event:

About the Garden

The Unexpected Garden in Stranraer can be found on the waterfront in Stranraer situated between Burns House and Ulsterbus. It is a community space where people can come together to grow food, take part in workshops, relax or attend one of our many events leading up to Harvest Festival in September.

  • The garden has a 6.5m x 6.5m stretch tent that can provide shelter for events and workshops.
  • We can provide folding tables and chairs as well as a battery powered PA and AMP system for live music and background music
  • We do not have any power supply to the garden so any power requirements will need to be brought in externally.
  • The garden and performance space is on the ground level with no stair access.
  • There is an accessible toilet on site for those who need it
  • Events must take place by 31 August 2022.

How to Apply:

Please complete our short application form to apply:

TO APPLY NOW, CLICK HERE

Deadline for applications: 30 June 2022

Alternatively, you can ask for a copy of the questions and submit a video, voice note or word document. Please email [email protected] for more information.

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News Project Updates

What is Dandelion All About?

By Beth Piggitt

Beth Piggott – Emerging Creative Producer

Dandelion is a national creative community food growing initiative that is coming to Stranraer.  It is part of the UK wide UnBoxed Festival; a UK wide celebration of creativity taking place in 2022.  A new community garden, known as an Unexpected Garden, will be created on the harbour that brings together food, culture, ideas, and technology driven by the concept of sow, grow and share.  There will be 12 unexpected gardens across Scotland including floating gardens in Falkirk and touring garden on the back of an HGV lorry in Caithness. At the heart of the project, we want to reconnect people with the food they eat, how it’s grown and show them that in the unlikeliest of places food can be grown. There will be a summer events programme which will culminate in a harvest festival in September – with the aim of re-establishing it as a cultural festival for the town.

Why we’re doing it?

Dandelion is committed to empowering young people, inspiring the creative sector and offers new opportunities for the Stranraer community – which is why we’re taking part. Working in partnership, Stranraer Development Trust and The Stove Network are proud to be part of this new initiative that’s going to get hundreds of people growing their own food across Scotland, with over 400 schools taking part and a new archive or stories about growing, gardening and the unique history and memories of the town and local traditions.

What have we planned?

Our Unexpected Garden will be a hive of activity over the summer with a range of volunteer opportunities, events, workshops, and our take on the Harvest Festival. The garden will be a fantastic opportunity for people to come and learn the basics of food growing, try their hand at gardening and become part of a vibrant community; we are looking forward to welcoming new and experienced gardeners (I include myself in the latter).

People will be able to attend our free events and workshop programme over the summer which will encompass talks, music, crafting, music, and art, as well as veggie and herb plug giveaways and vertical farms on tour. Find out more about our programme of events on our Facebook Page.

Process up until now?

Over the course of the past few months, I’ve enjoyed having the opportunity to chat with members of the community to hear what they want to get from the garden and the types of activities they’d like to see there. The garden will be a community project that will continue to evolve over the summer, and I am looking forward to watching it grow as more people visit the garden and leave their mark on it.

Part of my own personal process has involved moving up to Scotland from a small town in Leicestershire and coordinating the build of a new community garden; two things I never imagined happening in my wildest dreams; a comforting reminder that you never know what’s around the corner. I’m sure the garden will continue to remind me of that.

We’ve been lucky to have the support of Northern Lighthouse Board and CalMac who are donating old nautical items including a 27ft lifeboat and 2 big colourful ocean buoys to the garden to help us create a garden fit for a seafarer. Burns Real Ale and Dumfries & Galloway Council have kindly allowed us the space to bring the project to Stranraer and Ulsterbus, who will be providing access to water for the garden have also kindly housed 25 tonnes of soil & mulch.

Find out more about Unboxed & Dandelion

Categories
Opportunities Project Updates

Dandelion – Volunteer Call Out

The team at Dandelion are looking for passionate, reliable and enthusiastic people (Change Makers), who share the belief that people really do lead change.

If you’re passionate about community, place and planet and want to come together with like-minded people to support a programme anchored in driving positive social change, they’d love to hear from you.

Volunteer opportunities are available at the Unexpected Garden Site in Stranraer and across the other Dandelion project site throughout Scotland.

The deadline for applications is 12pm on 20th May 2022

No experience is necessary, however, there are some qualities they’re looking for:

  • Enthusiastic, reliable and flexible;
  • Friendly personality with good communication skills and initiative;
  • An interest in contemporary culture;
  • Ability to commit to a minimum of 2 x 4hr shifts at the festivals or across other public facing events
  • Be 18 or over

Dandelion Change Makers roles consist of four distinct areas, working alongside one another to support the Festivals and Free For All events.

  • Meet and Greet: these volunteers really are the face of Dandelion, they are the friendly faces from whom audiences gather programme information, highlights and guidance from the minute they enter one of our live events. The Meet and Greet team will be around to answer audience questions throughout their visit to the festival, offering insight into the programme or sign posting people to key areas of the site. Our Meet and Greet volunteers are super knowledgeable and love talking with people and supporting our audiences to have the best experience ever. So, stop by and say hello!
  • Event Support: these are the volunteers who support us to help things go smoothly across our events – you might find them signposting the crowd during a walkabout performance or greeting audiences when they enter the a tent for one of our performances or talks. Event Support volunteers are on hand to help our events run smoothly and efficiently, with audience experience always front and centre.
  • Artist Support: not always visible to the public, our Artist Support volunteers will be behind the scenes supporting the artists to make sure not only that their individual shows go smoothly, but that they get a fantastic welcome to Dandelion and the community in which our events are taking place – they are the people who ensure that our artists go home shouting about how amazing festival and our places really are!
  • Access: these are the volunteers who go the extra mile to make sure that visitors who may have access and or additional support needs get the most out of their visit to our events. They are able to answer all your questions and guide you to the right places at the right time to make sure that you get to experience all our performances, talks and workshops.

How to Apply

The online application form gives you the opportunity to make either a written, audio or video application. Whichever format you choose, you’ll be asked to answer the same questions. No assessment will be made of the writing style or the production quality of audio or video recordings. The application form can be found here.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL APPLICATION PACK HERE

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