Dumfries & Galloway’s Annual Wild Goose Festival is Back

Dumfries & Galloway’s annual Wild Goose Festival is back and celebrates its fifth birthday with its biggest programme yet.

Autumn 2024 marks the fifth annual Wild Goose Festival held in Dumfries & Galloway. This year, partners from across the region have designed a packed programme of family-friendly activities. Combining creativity and interactive education, this year’s festival showcases the unique and diverse habitat of our region and shines a light on the wildlife that live in, and visit, Dumfries & Galloway.

Wild Goose Festival will run from 18th – 27th October and will feature a host of events from interactive storytelling, nature walks, performances and creative workshops for all the family. The festival is designed to entertain, educate and excite, with a full region-wide programme.

Weaving art, culture, and nature together the ten-day festival forms part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival 2024 and is supported by TRACS – Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland, Dumfries & Galloway Council, Annandale & Nithsdale Community Benefit Company, administered by Foundation Scotland and Dumfries & Galloway Museums & Heritage Network.

Sal Cuddihy, Lead Producer of Wild Goose Festival comments,

“This year we’ve focused on developing our programme of activity, offering more opportunities for locals and visitors to D&G to engage with those organisations involved and the activities being produced through the festival. We live in a unique region, that attracts hundreds of thousands of migratory spices each year, our festival is a celebration of this, and an opportunity to highlight wider social histories that are linked to this theme. Our 2024 programme uses creativity as a tool for learning, participation and engagement with the natural world and with each of the partners involved in this year’s festival”

Faith Hillier, Community Officer at Partner Organisation Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere adds, “The Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere Partnership is delighted to be a Wild Goose Festival partner again in 2024. This is a unique event not only locally but nationwide, and one which shares the global UNESCO Biosphere ethos of learning and celebration. The astonishing migrations that bring such beautiful species to our coast each year have inspired so much in art, culture and environmental understanding, and our officer team are thrilled to be working alongside The Stove and a host of others sharing this through 2024’s brilliant festival programme of wildlife experiences, family events, creative workshops and more.”