Wild Goose Festival is back for another year with a fun-filled programme of inspiring and educational family-friendly activities and events across Dumfries & Galloway.
The week-long festival runs from 20th – 30th October, weaving art, culture, and nature together through a series of activities from interactive storytelling, nature walks, conversations to performances and creative workshops for all the family.
This year the festival team have launched a dedicated website where the public can take a gander and discover more about the festival, about each of the partners involved, and book tickets to this year’s events: wildgoosefestival.scot
Produced by The Stove Network, the festival supports Scotland’s Year of Stories, forms part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival 2022 and is supported by Dumfries & Galloway Council and TRACS – Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland.
Uniting key partners from across the region in an exploration of nature, creativity, and place, Wild Goose Festival is inspired by the migratory route of barnacle geese between Svalbard and the Solway estuary and focuses on the region’s connection to these birds and the tens of thousands of wild geese species; including barnacle, greylag geese, brent geese and Greenland white-fronted geese, many of which travel thousands of miles each year to winter in Dumfries & Galloway.
This yearly mass gathering makes Dumfries & Galloway one of the best places in the UK to see such a variety of geese and the festival celebrates both the inspirational journey undertaken by the geese and the deep connection we have with the natural world.
The family-friendly programme of events aims to engage our communities through creativity, education, and play, building meaningful relationships and encouraging people across generations to reconnect with the environment they live in.
This years’ key festival partners include; BTO (British Trust for Ornithology), Cycling Dumfries, Fair Scotland, Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership, Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere, LiftD&G, Moat Brae Centre for Children’s Literature and Storytelling, NatureScot (SNH), PAMIS (Promoting a More Inclusive Society), RSPB Mersehead, Solway Firth Partnership, University of Glasgow, The Stove Network, Transgressive North, Wigton Festival Company, WWT Caerlaverock Wetland Centre.
Of this year’s festival, Councillor Archie Dryburgh, the Chair of the Council’s Communities Committee says,
“The Wild Goose Festival 2022 has a fantastic programme that will encourage many people to get out to explore our wonderful natural environment and the astonishing force of nature that is the Autumn migration of geese. The many activities in the packed programme are accessible and affordable, in line with the Council’s desire that our grant-funded events do everything they can to attract local people.”
Councillor John Campbell, the Vice-Chair of the Communities Committee adds,
“The Festival has been very thoughtfully put together, and in time can become one of the most important nature and cultural festivals in Scotland. It promotes so many of the great environmental and wildlife features of the region. Do have a look at the programme and get along to some of the festival events.”
Graham Rooney, Lead Producer of Wild Goose Festival comments,
“Through nature, our region is connected to other places in the world and this connection is explored through key partnerships with local and national organisations. The festival offers a wide range of opportunities for our local communities and those visiting our region to take joy in the natural world and reflect on it.”
For full programme details, times, locations and tickets, please head here: wildgoosefestival.scot
