Big Burns Supper are looking for established or emerging performance designers, celebratory artists or community artists to help them create Dumfries Carnival in January 2025.
Commission: £2100 (£150 per day = nine days build / four days design / one day training)
Location: Design days remote; build days in Dumfries
Dumfries Carnival is part of the Big Burns Supper which returns to the streets of Dumfries in January 2025. They are looking for Carnival artists who will work with their seven community hubs to create a magical float as part of the Winter Parade.
The outdoor street theatre project marks the opening of our festival alongside 600 costumes which have been designed by artists and made by our volunteers. This will be performed by a cast of local primary school children who will bring the streets alive.
Each float will be built over a nine day build period at our warehouse in Dumfries from the 10 – 18 January 2025. Each artist will be matched with a community group who have their own group leader. The floats have a steel base on wheels which are usually pushed by community groups. They house a generator and a speaker system as this fuels the dance theatre sections at the front and rear.
They encourage the use of upcycling in our creative approach. Ideas to help us make art that is sustainable and considerate of the unique rural location and they are very close to the UNESCO protected biosphere.
This year the Carnival tells the social history from 1958, and each float will visually tell the story of our town through the music they used. The final float is called The Last Zoo on Earth and imagines that the world has flooded.
They will provide:
• A warehouse in January for the floats to be built.
• The materials that you require to dress the float.
The themes are:
1. Rock and Roll
2. Studio 54
3. New Romantics
4. Rave Generation
5. Calvin Harris
6. Future Sounds
7. Last Zoo on Earth
Criteria
• You will need to be based in Dumfries during the build period running between 10 – 18 January 2025.
• If you are an artist based outside the region, they can provide accommodation but £300 would be deducted from the commission amount.
To Apply
Deadline for submission is 31 July 2024, 5pm. They are hosting a webinar on 16 July 2024 at 1pm for the event which you can register for here.
For further information, please contact programming@bigburnssupper.com or visit https://bigburnssupper.com/carnival-artists-required/.