Nithraid 2017 was the first time when this popular Dumfries river Nith festival continued into the night time with live music, film projections, tasty vegan stew, campfires and stories by the Vikings.
I was privileged to document the efforts of talented artists from the Stove Network that masterminded and ran Nithraid and that continuously come up with creative ideas enhancing the cultural life in Dumfries.
Team members did a great job tending to the campfires, and Nordic log fires enhanced this year’s Viking theme.
Silent film screenings projected onto the walls of the Nithraid Village tent were spectacular. One could sit looking up at the moving scenes absolutely mesmerised for hours!
Saulty Coo looked fabulous (even after the dunking) silhouetted in the setting sun.
Hugh Bryden’s free-standing model of the Lyceum cinema doors, a preview of the upcoming “Forgotten Doors” exhibition, was a real hit as an impromptu peekaboo playground. Ha-ha!
Local musicians Fraser Clark and Stuart MacPherson performing live on the Blueprint100 acoustic nautical stage added to the festival’s ambience.
Nithraid visitors were also treated to delicious vegetarian stew by Craig Patterson of Catering Plus.
Galloway Longfhada Vikings who provided day-time combat displays and re-enactments came down to Mill Green fires. As they joined the evening festivities Doonhamers had another taster of what life by their river was 1000 years ago.
What an incredible exciting and mellow evening it was!
Another stop on the Glasgow Mural Trail as I revisit the Clutha to admire Rogue One’s Charles Rennie Mackintosh mural looming over the back garden of the bar.
As Above So Below is a piece of an outdoor interactive performance art commissioned to the Young Stovies for Nithraid 2015. The show created by the Mad Jackals, a group of young Dumfries artists, is loosely based on the ideas of Enlightment. It explores the esoteric correspondences of the ‘as above…
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