Record-breaking crowds and participants welcomed to this year’s Dumfries Carnival

Thousands line the streets for biggest Carnival to date and Northern Lights Trail

Big Burns Supper, Dumfries Carnival and Northern Lights Trail Dumfries are celebrating a stellar year with the biggest weekend to date for the annual Winter Festival events.

With a theme this year of Outer Space, Dumfries Carnival took place on Saturday 17^th January with a record 2,521 participants and thousands lining the streets, making it the biggest Dumfries Carnival since it began in 2014.

So far, more than 4,871 people have also taken part in the Northern Lights Dumfries, the free town-wide trail which finishes at 9pm tonight.

Spectators have said they cannot think of a time when as many people were on the High Street at once with one spectator saying: “I didn’t know this many people even lived in Dumfries!”

Organisers for the events have said: “Public support has exceeded our expectations, reminding us that community is very much alive in Dumfries. It took a bit of courage to remodel the entire Festival, but it looks like it has paid off. We’re incredibly proud of our town, our volunteers and all the artists who have taken part.”

This year saw the 14th Big Burns Supper programme with a reworked format and the continuation of the Northern Lights Dumfries programme, which includes 14 sound and light installations as part of a free town-wide trail co-created with a range of different partners, will help to bring light to the dark winter months, taking place from the 15th to the 19th of January 2026 and alongside a five-day Winter Food & Drink Village in the heart of the High Street.

At the centre of the light trail experience is Burns Light, a brand-new historical retelling of Robert Burns and the Burns Mausoleum, which is the resting place of Scotland’s most important son. A new music score created with emerging music creators in the town will bring the mausoleum to life through a six-minute audiovisual projection which will be beamed onto the white monument over the five days.

Other Northern Lights highlights include:

Phantom Spectra, which is commissioned by the Stove Network and explores the town’s history with the travelling fair community which goes back nearly 200 years. An odyssey of the fair. A ghost in the town. A ride through memory, presence, and what is yet to come. Phantom Spectra is an immersive, geo-located binaural sound installation that draws you into the spirit of the fair — part documentary, part dream. A story that slips into the invisible, where past, future, and spirit collide.

Divided, which is a new work that first appeared at the festival last year and takes place inside in an abandoned nightclub. The piece uses mirrors and recreates an outside world inside with real grass and Christmas trees that the community donate. The piece explores the shifting view on immigration and asks the spectator to see themselves as others see them and immerses the audience into a sonic

Washing Line makes a return to the festival which will be hung up Gass House Close and will bring forgotten voices back to life in a re-working of this favourite installation which was last seen in 2017.

Birds on a Wire is a new installation created by the community and will be the centrepiece of the festival on the High Street. Spectators will be able to interact with birds who have visited the town centre by sitting on a telephone wire.

Biofluorescence is a new work created by Summerhill Community Centre in partnership with RSPBS Scotland and will bring to life on of Scotland’s only rain forests through an interactive silent disco experience which viewers can watch projected onto the side of the Midsteeple Quarter.

Lights of Hope, which form part of the lighting up of the promenade and town centre spaces by Dumfries Partnership Action Group.

Norway Haus which celebrates the town’s Norwegian connection during World War II at the Venue Nightclub.

Immortal Memory, the immersive experience which allows spectators to light a candle for someone they loved at Greyfriars Church.

Lots of local venues have got in on the action too by lighting up their windows, including:

The recently renovated Ewart Library who will be celebrating their programme through Reading Room.

Dumfries Table Tennis Club will be offering young people the chance to play glow-in-the-dark table tennis.

Rabbie’s Winter Village in the centre of the High Street includes five days of music, food and drink presented by local musicians, artists and producers from across the region as well as a free family hub across the five days.

The festival will conclude on the 25th of January 2026 with a special Burns Night edition of Le Haggis.

Big Burns Supper is supported by Dumfries & Galloway Council, Historic Environment Scotland and EventScotland.  Northern Lights programme is supported by the privately funded Holywood Trust.

120 volunteers made costumes between August and January.

14 free light and sound installations over the five days of Northern Lights Dumfries.

Community bands from outside Dumfries & Galloway will be took part including Drum Nation (Kendal), Blue Jam Samba (Penrith), Oi Musica! (Edinburgh), North Tyneside Steel Band (Newcastle) and Cramlington Caribbean Crew (Northumberland)