Burns&Beyond festival gets ready for a big return

October 27, 2021 | Culture

Burns&Beyond – Edinburgh’s flagship Burns festival – is returning in 2022.

Organisers Unique Events have announced a series of live, in-person events for the festival which returns for its fourth edition in January 2022 with the message of Love, Hope and Kindness.

Burns&Beyond celebrates the life and legacy of Robert Burns with a series of events presenting traditional and contemporary art and culture from Edinburgh, Scotland and beyond.

The Burns&Beyond Festival Club returns to the capital’s famous Assembly Rooms with eight nights of spectacular live events including performances from The Twilight Sad, Arab Strap and Treacherous Orchestra. A major, internationally-renowned art installation in St Giles’ Cathedral brings a message of hope, humanity and new beginnings as the city emerges from the shadow of the last two years.

Al Thomson andPenny Dougherty, directors of Unique Events, said: ‘We are thrilled to welcome back audiences and performers to Burns&Beyond this January for what promises to be a very special series of live event experiences. We can’t wait to brighten up the dark January nights, celebrating the life and legacy of Robert Burns though spectacular live music, poetry, comedy and whisky, from across Scotland and beyond.’

Michael Pendry’s compelling installation ‘Les Colombes’ presents a floating flock of over 2,500 folded white paper doves suspended high above the St Giles’ Cathedral Nave from Friday 21 January to Saturday 5 February 2022 bringing a message of hope, humanity and new beginnings. This extraordinary artwork is making its first appearance in Scotland and only its third in the UK, having been created in Salisbury in 2018 and subsequently travelled to Munich, London, Jerusalem, Buenos Aires, San Francisco and New York.

As part of the installation, Burns&Beyond is inviting people in and around Edinburgh to create their own origami Doves with messages of Love, Hope and Kindness, which will be used not only to create the installation but also to display in homes, local businesses and primary schools as a simple but powerful symbol of the city’s spirit. Dove-making workshops will take place at St Giles’ Cathedral, National Museum of Scotland and other locations.

Michael Pendry said: ‘The Les Colombes installation has found a home in some of the world’s most sacred spaces, and now I’m thrilled to exhibit this piece in Edinburgh’s St Giles’ Cathedral, where it can challenge and engage new audiences.’

The Burns&Beyond Festival Club returns to the Assembly Rooms in George Street with eight nights of live, in-person events including a stripped-back, intimate performance from The Twilight Sad who will be performing songs from across their critically acclaimed body of work on Saturday 22 January, with support from critically acclaimed Glasgow three-piece Cloth.

James Graham, Twilight Sad, said: ‘First of all, we’re just happy to be back out there doing what we love again. We’re extremely grateful and honoured to be taking part in Burns & Beyond. In school, we used to recite Robert Burns poems on Burns day. It was something I always looked forward to. My parents would rehearse the poems at home with me. It’s a really fond memory I have from my childhood.

BurnsBeyond 2022 features Michael Pendrys – Les Colombes (Photo: Ash Mills)

‘Now, as an adult, I truly understand and love the beauty/importance within Robert Burn’s work. As someone who tries to convey emotions through words, I am in awe of Robert Burns’s genius. It’s something I’ll pass down to my children as well. To be part of the celebration of one of Scotland’s finest poets is a true honour.’

On Monday 24 January, Arab Strap, the pioneering folk duo of Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton who have been nominated for the 2021 Scottish Album of the Year, take to the stage with a full-band live performance with support from fellow SAY Award nominee Lizzie Reid, and on Burns Night itself (Tuesday 25 January) Neu! Reekie!’s This-Is-Not-A-Burns-Night Burns Night lands with a night on anarchic spoken-word, live music, whisky and scran in celebration of the bard.

Arab Strap said: ‘We’re very much looking forward to playing one of Edinburgh’s loveliest venues in honour of the Ploughman Poet himself. Burns loved a bit of bawd, and he hated slavery, monarchy, and social inequality too, so we like to think he’d be pleased to have us.’

The Big Burns Comedy Night, presented in partnership with Gilded Balloon, welcomes comedy legend Fred MacAulay who hosts an evening of the country’s leading comics including Larry Dean, Susie McCabe, Des Clarke and Maisie Adam on Wednesday 26 January.

Treacherous Orchestra makes a welcome return to live performance, with an exclusive show for Burns&Beyond on Thursday 27 January. Expect a joyous explosion of instrumental brilliance, rampaging humour and cracking tunes featuring bagpipes, whistles, flutes, fiddles, accordion, banjo, guitars, bass, drums, bodhrán and percussion. Their tightly crafted arrangements forge an irresistibly danceable sound that never fails to get a crowd on its feet.

On Friday 28 January, the Festival Club presents a very special event, Rip It Up! A Celebration of Scottish Pop, curated by BBC broadcaster and champion of Scottish music Vic Galloway. The evening boasts a glittering line-up of artists of Scottish music legends and emerging talent including Justin Currie (Del Amitri), Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), Stina Tweeddale (Honeyblood), Emma Pollock (The Delgados), award-winning singer-songwriter Kathryn Joseph, C. Duncan and the legendary Faye Fife and Eugene Reynolds of The Rezillos performing some of their favourite songs from seven decades of Scottish pop with the incredible 10-piece Rip It Up! band.

Burns&Beyond is once again proud to support their official charity Tiny Changes, and will be fundraising via online donations and throughout the festival to help transform the mental health of children and young people across Scotland.

Tickets are on-sale for all events from 10am, Friday 29 October through www.burnsandbeyond.com with a 24 ouhr pre-sale available to those who subscribe to the Burns&Beyond mailing list at the official website. Further events across the Burns&Beyond programme will be announced in the coming months.

All events with live audiences will be subject to current Scottish Government COVID guidelines and restrictions.