The team at the Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival have been hard at work putting together a plan for their annual 10 day Festival to boost the wellbeing of their audiences and artists, kick start live events within the region and support communities with a safe and innovative programme.
2020 is the year that the world stopped as a global pandemic turned everyone’s lives upside down and isolation became the key theme. The Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival took this time to pause, reflect and they reimagined their Festival as one that sits at the heart of their communities across the region.
Their aim in 2021 is to reconnect with local artists, audiences and their performing arts network, creating lasting connections after a long and difficult period of isolation. With a safe, interactive programme across the region, their refreshed Festival plan takes them forward into the heart of Dumfries & Galloway communities, in a way that is more inclusive and diverse than ever before.
Their plan is entirely new for 2021, with a blended and adaptable mix of live, outdoor socially distanced performances by local artists in their own communities and a D&G Digital Arts Festival with artists from across Scotland, it is hoped that focusing on events that can be organised in a safe format will build the region’s confidence to attend live events once more.
The team have been working on creating plans that meet the needs of both their audiences and artistic community while adhering to Covid-19 guidelines and focusing on making their audiences and artists feel safe above all else.
Not only is the programme going to look a little different this year, but the dates will too. The Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival will take place between the 16th – 25th July 2021 instead of their usual dates in May. This later date gives the team longer to pre-film the artists who will be performing as part of the 2021 Festival, ensuring that if restrictions are tightened, then there will be a digital Festival regardless of the level of restrictions within the region in line with the Strategic Government Framework.
As part of the planning for their 2021 Festival, they have come up with a number of different plans around these projects that will allow them to work to the Strategic Government Framework at the time of the Festival, while ensuring they are able to offer a high quality event in some capacity for their audiences, boosting the wellbeing of their artists, communities and visitors with their blended and adaptable approach to their 2021 Festival programme.
The 2021 programme has a number of sensational surprises that are sure to entertain all ages and offer something exciting, even for those that have never experienced the Festival before. The 10 day long programme showcases the very best of theatre, music, dance, comedy and spoken word.
The 2021 programme has a number of sensational surprises that are sure to entertain all ages and offer something exciting, even for those that have never experienced the Festival before. The ten-day long programme showcases the very best of theatre, music, dance, comedy and spoken word.
Their programme also includes elements of their successful commissioning scheme, trialled in 2020, supporting emerging artists to create and showcase small scale innovative works.
Establishing the successful digital streaming programme in 2020 as part of their year-round Arts Live offering was no easy task, however they were able to give their artists a platform that reached over 22,000 people over the course of the programme and supporting these artists to perform as part of their 2021 Festival is a key aim to further the support they are able to give to their emerging artists.
The team are currently working on creating a new website to showcase their artists to a worldwide stage, promoting the fantastic offering in Dumfries & Galloway and with their mix of live and digital work, it is hoped that there will be something for all to enjoy.
The live Festival plans are based around socially distanced, outdoor work that will feature at the heart of communities and the team are still on the look out for artists who would be able to perform small impromptu Pop Up performances of no more than 15 minutes long within their own communities during the 10 days Festival. If you would like to be a part of Scotland’s largest rural performing arts festival, contact the team for more information: [email protected]
Thoroughly assessing the current situation and looking to the future, the team have ensured that they are able to create confidence in their ability to undertake a 2021 Festival with an adaptable plan that stringently works to the Government Strategic Framework at different levels but delivers alternatives that allow audiences to experience high quality, world class performing arts events on their doorstep, or indeed in their own homes, regardless of the situation.
There will be more announcements to come as the Festival plans take shape, with some exciting and innovative additions to the programme that will keep performing arts alive within Dumfries & Galloway over the coming months and support communities across the region.
It is hoped that these exciting projects will restore audience confidence to return to live events, and although they will look different than they did before the pandemic, bring hope to all that this isolation we all feel won’t last forever and live events aren’t too far away.
For more information visit: www.dgartsfestival.org.uk
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