Living in these strange times has thrown up a whole host of new challenges for us all that we have never faced before. We know that many people are struggling and facing hardships that are affecting our communities, not just in Dumfries & Galloway but around the world. We are enormously proud of the way our communities have responded and to everyone working to keep us all safe.
Last week, we should have held our 2020 annual Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to share it with you in person, however the artists that were due to perform at the festival rallied together and sent us videos and links to their work so that we could bring you a digital festival to enjoy before we get to enjoy live events again.
Last week, we engaged with over 44,000 people from our local communities and all over the world, existing audiences and also new audiences who we hope to meet again in the future. Working in this new digital sphere that we have all had to adopt over the last few months has meant we are able to reach people we have never been able to before and we are really excited to continue this work once we are passed this current crisis we are all living through.
We did really miss spending our 10 day festival with you, but we know that when we are all together again, we will be able to bring you some exciting work from our superb artists. We hope to be able to bring you the artists that were due to perform at this year’s festival and we have some really exciting digital/social distancing projects for you later this year.
We are also hugely proud to be a part of the performing arts industry that has shown resilience and produced exceptional high-quality work in all genres and have rallied together to support each other. We are so proud to work in an industry that has been able to give people hope, love and a little bit of a smile when it can sometimes feel like the world is falling down around us.
If you missed any of the videos that we shared last week, head over to our Facebook page to watch performances from some of the amazing artists that were due to perform in Dumfries & Galloway as a taster for what is to come: https://www.facebook.com/dgartsfest
Stay safe everyone and we are sending our love to all of our communities around the world.