Tag: River Nith

News

Nithraid is Back!

Post author By Kevin Stewart
Post date September 5, 2017

This Saturday, September 9^th will be 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 right up to the River Nith in the centre of Dumfries, is made possible by one of the highest tides of the year.

While waiting for the boats to arrive, join us along the Mill Green, opposite the Whitesands from 12noon for food, music and activities for all the family!

This year, our Project Manager for Nithraid is Stove Curatorial Team Member, Sal Cuddihy. She has been working hard with the rest of the Stove team to put together a very exciting Nithraid this year, with some great new additions to the festival; our friends the Vikings are coming to liven up the banks of the Mill Green with re-enactments and combat displays. And for the first time, we will be continuing the festivities into the evening with some live entertainment in a relaxed atmosphere.

Visitors to Nithraid are invited to join us in a full day of activities. Kicking off the day, the Salty Coo procession will leave from Fountain Square on Dumfries High Street, arriving at the Mill Green at approximately 12.30pm.

This year, Nithraid has a Viking theme, with Longfada Viking Group staging a re-enactment which interprets the lives of people living by the river around 1000 years ago. They will be putting on a Viking Combat display at 1pm, at the Mill Green. Wordsmithcrafts, another Viking themed group, will be working with other local groups from the area, and encouraging ‘have a go’ activities for all the family.

Throughout the day, there will also be art activities and demonstrations for all ages, acoustic music on a hand built stage by emerging artists Blueprint100, food provided by Craig Paterson of Catering Plus, and the dunking of the legendary Salty Coo at 4.45pm, where the winning skipper has the honour of lowering the Coo and releasing her into the river.

Then at 7pm, members of the public are invited back to the Mill Green for ‘Nithraid Night Time’ – live music and spoken word performances, visuals, storytelling, food and campfires!

This year, Nithraid is 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 has also been generously supported by Holywood Trust, Barfil Trust and many local businesses.

For more information, including how to take part, please visit www.thestove.org/nithraid

Tags Boat Race, Festival, Live Music, Nithraid, Performance, Procession, River Festival, River Nith, Sailing, Salty Coo, Workshops

News Project Updates

Here Comes Nithraid!

Post author By Katie Anderson
Post date August 8, 2016

September 3^rd sees The Stove’s fourth staging of Nithraid, a fun family event that takes place on and around the river. Nithraid is a celebration of the town’s long relationship with its river, highlighting the way the Nith connected Dumfries to the rest of the world through trade, goods (including Coos) and sail power. It is created and produced by The Stove Network and is part of the groups mission to make creative opportunities for local people to be involved in the future of Dumfries

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Matt Baker, lead artist on Nithraid, says, “It’s really exciting to see the event continue to grow and change with each passing year, for 2016 we’ve been overwhelmed by the support of local businesses and community groups – Dumfries is definitely pulling together for the Nithraid! New for 2016 we have the inclusion of Coastal Rowing and we’re also very lucky to be able to offer such high quality food produce, as well as a range of arts and activities on the Mill Green.”

The daring sailing race, starting from the Solway Firth and sailing right up the River Nith into the centre of Dumfries, is made possible by one of the highest tides of the year. While waiting for the boats to arrive, The Stove invites you to enjoy the ‘arts and food village’ at Mill Green, opposite the Whitesands, from 12 noon until 4pm. Join in with art activities and demonstrations for all ages, listen to acoustic music, visit a mini market of local food producers, as well as watching the procession of the legendary Salty Coo, starting from Dumfries High Street down to Mill Green, where the winning skipper has the honour of lowering the Coo and releasing her into the river.

For more information, including how to take part, please visit www.thestove.org/nithraid

Sponsors for Nithraid 2016 include McDermid Supply Co. Ltd, Dumfries Timber Co, Monaghan’s Jewellery, Farries Kirk and McVean, People’s Project, Lowland Accountancy and Luke Moloney Architect.

Tags Creative Dumfries, Dumfries, Music, Nithraid, River Festival, River Nith, Salty Coo

Musings News

We Live With Water

SUBMERGE offered The Stove the chance to imagine a Dumfries of the future…a future that is predicted to be as much as fully twice as wet by the end of this century.

As we prepared for SUBMERGE our local council unanimously voted for a plan to build a physical structure along the edge of the River Nith in an attempt to hold back the surges in this spate river and prevent the flooding that has been a feature of the town since records began. Hard though we searched, we could not find the longer term vision for the town that the barrier plan fitted into – how did the barrier work towards a future for Dumfries we wondered? The only answer we could fathom was to make a small area of the town more attractive to property developers. The strategy of trying to attract private investment to make the town flourish has been the mantra for the last 20 years – it has not been a success and appears increasingly questionable during the decline 20^th Century capitalism which is failing to deliver well-being for the majority of the population in Scotland.

The Stove put out a call for people to join a group who would take an alternative approach and try to imagine a future where increased rainfall, sea-levels and river surges would be seen as an opportunity. We tried to imagine Dumfries as River Town….a place that embraced its environment…a place that Lives With Water.

In this plan the banks of the River Nith are re-wilded as riverbank through the centre of town and these new spaces are joined with existing green spaces adjacent to the river to create a green corridor along the Nith which is used for a combination of food and energy production, leisure, culture and education.

The commercial district of the town centre is constricted and focuses on its traditional function as a market for local producers, a meeting place and a centre of culture/heritage. As the transport hub for the region Dumfries is the place that connects national and international relations to the wider region of South West Scotland.

The area immediately bounding the High Street and Market Square is returned to residential use with urban smallholders and makers taking advantage of the proximity to market for their excess production and bringing vitality to the town centre throughout the day and nights.

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This vision was presented in a document called ‘We Live With Water’ which was written from the vantage point of Dumfries in 2065 and included commentaries by local writers looking back from the future.

Richard Arkless MP visited his constituents in Dumfries on Monday 7^th December 2015 to inspect the aftermath of the flooding from the previous weekend. He heard rumours of an alternative plan for the town and the river during his visit and collected a copy of We Live With Water to take back to Westminster as a potential way forward for our town.

We Live With Water was coordinated by The Stove Network and included contributions from:

Katie Anderson
Kate Foster
Rita Pacheco
Alyne Jones
David Slater
Mike Bonaventura
Lee McQueen
Matt Baker
Mark Zygadlo
Ivor Gott
Stuart White
Mary Smith
Lauren Soutar
Rhiannon Dewar
Linda Powell
Katharine Wheeler
(and some anonymous writers)

Copies of We Live With Water are downloadable as a PDF

Tags ArtCOP, Creative Placemaking, Dumfries, Flooding, River Nith, SUBMERGE, We Live With Water, Whitesands

Musings News

Quest 3 at SUBMERGE

Post author By Katie Anderson
Post date December 8, 2015

“Quest” is an ongoing environmental Quest by artist Jan Hogarth which explores our relationship with environment, land and water. Jan’s working practice grows out of a deep love of the land (in the broadest sense of the word, by land I mean water, trees, animals, mountains etc), an empathy for it and a deep desire to heal it. Jan has been working with Sheila Pollock who is a practitioner in the healing arts for over 30 years. And invites others who love the land to become involved in the environmental Art Quests.

In Celtic tradition healing wells, springs and the sources of rivers were thought to have healing and sacred properties.

“Quest” explores rituals and the truths behind ritual to create and invent new environmental Art rituals that seek to heal the environment. The idea of looking for the source of the Nith came from a local rumour that the Lynors from Dumfries Guid Nychburris took spring water from the source of the Nith and carried it with them when they rode the boundaries of the town. Myself and my friend Sheila who has been working in the healing arts went in search of the source of the Nith which is at Dalmelington in Ayrshire and found an environmental massacre in the form of open cast mines and landfill sites there with no access to the source due to the open cast mine operators. It was shocking how could you heal this river when the source was an example of how we take from the land with no empathy for our own energy consumption? This seemed to be a metaphor for the wider climate change problem. The problem is us and out lack of love for the non human, our lack of reverence for nature, water and the land.

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Sheila has worked with Jan on the Quests project and has been looking at the energy of water and its places and exploring how to lift that energy, how to lift the vibration. Having dowsed there is evidence that the vibration was raised in the water she has worked on in Quest 1 and that improvement has remained. The Nith is a huge challenge because of its source in a open cast mine. Sheila and Jan will be talking about this on Thursday evening at the Stove about our work.

jan install — Jan’s install in preparation for SUBMERGE

Quest is a part of SUBMERGE, an exhibition as part of ArtCOP Dumfries, which runs daily from 10-5pm until Saturday, 12th December.

Jan and Sheila will be talking about Quest as part of A Question of Scale, on Thursday 10th December from 6pm.

Tags ArtCOP, Dumfries, Environment, Environmental Art, Environmental Art Festival Scotland, Public Art, River Nith, SUBMERGE

News Project Updates

Nithraid 2014

Post author By Matt Baker
Post date October 15, 2014

A Public Celebration of the River Nith in Dumfries

September 2014 saw the second running of The Stove Network’s Nithraid. The project has two elements a) ‘dangerous sailing race’ from Solway Firth up the Nith into the centre of Dumfries and b)artworks and interpretative works that invite the public to discover anew the river and the spaces around it while they wait for the boats to arrive.

The stunning weather was a mixed blessing as the sailors ended up having to heroically row or paddle most of the 14 miles upriver. Nithraid organisers apologise for the previous incorrect posting of the results of the 2014 Nithraid. They should read:

Position	Name	Boat type	Cargo	Time
1	Roger Blamire	Wayfarer	Tobacco	02:40:50
2	David Sleggs	GP14	Wine	02:59:39

The 2014 event should be remembered as extraordinary, not least for the dogged determination of the two crews who persevered to the finish in completely calm weather. Both teams refused assistance and rowed the entire course in the sweltering heat to an heroic finish. All other entrants disqualified themselves in accepting outside or mechanical assistance but distinguish themselves for their efforts under a fierce sun. Other participants include:

Position	Name	Boat type	Cargo	Time
n/a	Jim White	Cornish Crabber	Tea	02:42:21
n/a	Crawford Johnstone	Enterprise	Cinnamon	02:47:27
n/a	Frank Birkett	Mirror	Timber	02:55:19
n/a	KKBT Sea Cadets	Gull	Chocolate	03:00:17
n/a	Mark Zygadlo	Wayfarer	Lemon	03:01:39
n/a	Steve Cochrane	Hobby 405	Salt	03:02:58
n/a	Helen McConnel	Mirror	Sugar	03:09:30
n/a	Ross Mcglennon	Enterprise	Slate	03:10:37
n/a	Alex Rigg	GP14	Coal	03:11:06

Encouraged by the success of the first staging of Nithraid, The Stove Network upped the scale of things for 2014. The ‘Salty Coo’ made a re-appearance with a new salty coat, and was paraded through the streets with a specially assembled Balkan Street Carnival Band and newly commissioned music from local musician Ruth Morris. The car parks beside the river were transformed by an eclectic street market, a scale model of the river with model boats charting the race, skateboarders, BMXers and rollerskaters. Visitors were also offered the chance to make their own Nithraid pewter button and these were cast on site with our bicycle powered foundry – designed and operated by Stove members Katie Anderson and Uula Jero. Also The Stove’s ‘Herald’ Moxie DePaulitte was in attendance with different groups she had been working with and all the background on the ‘why?what?where?who?’ of the Nithraid.

The ‘Salty Coo’ was hoisted aloft on a specially design ‘Coo Delivery Mechanism’ (designed and made by member Mark Zygadlo) and as the boats arrived they deposited their ‘art cargo’ onto the CDM. Josh from the winning boat was given the honour of lowering the Salty Coo and releasing it into the Nith.

Nithraid takes place on the highest tide around the Autumnal Equinox as this ensures sufficient depth of water for the boats to navigate the river. The salt on the Coo celebrates the highest point that salt water comes up the river at high tide (to the Caul below Devorgilla Bridge) and the Coo itself is released into the river at the spot where livestock traditionally forded the river in crossing between Dumfriesshire and Kirkcudbrightshire.

People lined the Nith up the entire route with 300 at Glencaple and over 4000 in Dock Park, Mill Green and the Whitesands, all enjoying the carnival atmosphere and activities. The feedback has been incredibly positive with people unanimous about the potential of the riverside areas in Dumfries to become a major public meeting space and attraction for the town. Nithraid is part of The Stove Network’s ongoing project to actively engage people in the future of their town by staging events in underused public spaces and encouraging the idea that ‘Dumfries is what we all make together’

Tags Community Festival, Dumfries, Nithraid, River Festival, River Nith, Sailing, Salty Coo, TheStove@TheStove

News Project Updates

Rushes from Nithraid 2014

Post author By Matt Baker
Post date September 15, 2014

The Salty Coo Procession

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!!