The Big Burns Supper is bidding to take over the Loreburn Hall in Dumfries for a six-month run of shows.
The community arts charity was forced to cancel its live January festival due to Covid, and is now aiming to make up for it with a series of pop-up events at the hall between April 1 and September 30.
The not-for-profit organisation is requesting permission to use the building at nil rent in order to deliver its shows.
The proposal has been put forward to Nithsdale Area Committee next week where council officers are recommending that councillors approve the move.
A report produced for the meeting reads: “Big Burns Supper (BBS) were due to run their festival in The Loreburn Hall during
January 2022, but with the advent of Omicron, they were prevented from running the festival.
“Initially they were going to re-run the festival in June, but this clashes with other festivals in Scotland. They have now asked to run a series of ‘pop up’ events running from April through to September.
“If approved, several of the booked acts from the January festival will appear later in the year. BBS has not dismantled its festival setup at this point and is awaiting the answer to their request.”
BBS is a registered charity with voluntary trustees and benefits almost 70,000 people a year.
Each year the organisation aims to deliver more than 300 shows across its festival programmes, as well as weekly community arts sessions, creative industry training for emerging artists, and traineeships in producing its major projects.
If permitted to occupy Loreburn Hall for the requested six-month period, council officers have insisted that a condition should be put in place for BBS to have left the building and removed their equipment and possessions by September 30.
