Nithraid, the annual celebration of the River Nith on Saturday 23th August, ran a range of creative family friendly activities on Mill Green from 11am – 5pm.
Keeping at its heart the spectacular fun of the river race, the procession through town (The Progress of the Salty Coo) and its festive atmosphere, the Mill Green brought audiences an array of free creative activities and events with an environmental focus celebrating the river and looking for new ways to understand and sustain it.
The boats arrived early at 12.30pm, just in time for the many people who had brought a picnic to enjoy the spectacle and the prize giving!
All activities were FREE!
Performance
The Salty Coo
12.10pm (approx). Arrival of the ‘Progress of the Salty Coo’
Oceanallover and performance. With music, costume and choreography, this was something not to be missed.
Also joining was the ‘The Grey Men of the Nith’.….
The Progress of the Salty Coo left the Town Centre (Planestanes) and processed through Dumfries and over the brige to Mill Green
The Nithraid Tent
Exhibitions:
11am-5pm
Photographs of the length of the Nith by photographer Trinity Coombs.
Exhibition of Handmade Boats.
3.00pm – History of the Port of Dumfries, talk by Judith Hewitt (Dumfries Museum)
3.30pm – Trinity Coombs will talk about their photographic exhibition tracing the river from source to sea
4.00pm – Tour of the handmade boats on display.
4.30pm – Hydro Generation on the River Nith. Presentation about the Nethermills hydro generating scheme in Ayr by Joe Fergusson followed by a general discussion about the possibilities for a similar scheme on the River Nith.
Installation
WhiteMill
An amazing wind-powered water filtering system by artist Mark Zygadlo. Visitors were able to drink water from the Nith and make a toast to the river. Clarifying the Nith’, a discussion on a charter of rights for the river was held.
Workshops and Demonstrations
Flag Design
The popular environmental flag design workshop run by EcoArt returned.
Magical Moths!
The folk at South West Scotland Environmental Information Centre opened their moth trap at 11am and the moths were on display throughout the day.
Clay Creatures
A collection of ‘River Beings‘ were made from clay earth foraged locally, and from other collected materials that grow along the river Nith. Each Being was collected and laid to rest along the River, to slowly break down and release seeds downstream. A discussion looked at ways to protect and help restore the land and river.
With Artist Jasmin Roberts.
Wordsmith Crafts Cluaran Project
The mediaeval pavilion offered a model boat building activity using recycled materials to build and tinker with candle powered “put-put” and sail powered boats.
Films
The Moving Images Caravan Cinema
Showed children’s films from 11am- 5pm
12pm-5pm. The Robert Burns Centre showed Alluvium, a programme of short artist-made environmental films curated by Cample Line Gallery. For more information on the films see HERE. Films were shown on a continuous loop starting on the hour.
7.00pm. Evening showing of FLOW (U) at The Robert Burns Centre. (epic animation)
Walks
Bat Walk
Species on the Edge Project Officer Liam Templeton led an evening walk along the banks of the river Nith searching for the enigmatic Daubenton’s bat, otherwise known as the “water bat”, equipped with special bat detectors.
Nithraid RIVER FESTIVAL 