‘Voice in a Million’ Will Headline the Pack Up Your Troubles Festival
Heading the bill at this month’s World War One themed Pack Up Your Troubles Festival will be Fiona Harrison – a voice in a million.
When it comes to capturing the grace and elegance of the First World War era, Fiona Harrison is a costume artist like no-other.
To tie in with the many 100 year anniversaries Fiona has launched a WW1 show incorporating many of the popular tunes from the Great War. These include, “It’s A Long way to Tipperary”, “Fall in and Follow Me”, “Goodbye Dolly Grey” and the show stopping recruitment song “I’ll Make a Man of You” all performed in 1914 costume.
Fiona will be an undoubted star of the Festival and will appear throughout the August Bank Holiday weekend, most notably at the Old Style Music Hall concert on Friday the 28, at the Festival café at the Richard Greenhow Centre, there will be an afternoon appearance at the Baxter Hall arts day on Saturday and she will perform a solo show at All Saints Church Gretna on Sunday 30 at 7pm.
Councillor Colin Smyth, the Council’s Events Champion said, “The Pack Up Your Troubles Festival has an amazing array of events within the Programme that encourage us to learn in an informal way about the Great War, its hardships and privations but also the new opportunities it created for the influx of workers to the Munitions Factory, the then largest factory of its kind in the World. The festival, whilst clearly being of huge appeal to older people and those interested in military history, is designed to have something for everyone, and I am confident there will be a second mass migration to Gretna and Eastriggs at the end of this month, one hundred years since thousands flocked to the area to find work and help the war effort.”
Festival organisers are urging the public that wish to go on the Time Traveller classic bus tours of the area to book their tickets soon, as places are limited. Tickets can be booked directly from the Devil’s Porridge Museum on 01461 700021.
The Pack Up Your Troubles Festival is planned to be accessible, affordable and fun for all. Dumfries and Galloway Council is providing £25,000 of funding for the weekend of events, with a major advertising campaign promoting the Festival to local residents and potential visitors from Cumbria and the Central Belt of Scotland. For full details on the Festival go to www.packup2015 or call the Midsteeple Box Office on 01387 253383 to request a brochure.
