Line-up announced for event placing culture at heart of indy campaign

BELIEVE in Scotland (BiS) has announced the line-up for an event which hopes to put culture at the heart of the independence campaign.

The Creating Scotland event – set to take place in Dundee next month – will aim to move the conversation around achieving independence away from “tribalistic politics” and towards a movement embedded in “cultural and creative activities”.

It will be hosted by journalist and presenter Alistair Heather and will feature a range of prominent Scottish cultural figures – including broadcaster and National columnist Lesley Riddoch, who will be interviewed by Heather.

Alistair HeatherOther figures included in the line-up are stand-up comedian Vladimir McTavish, folk singer Fiona Forbes, poet and playwright William Hershaw and musician Graham Brown, as well as BiS founder Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp.

The Creating Scotland event will take place on May 11 between 1pm and 3.30pm at Bonar Hall in Dundee.

Tickets are priced at £10, with organisers encouraging anyone who buys a ticket to “bring along an undecided friend”.

The Dundee event comes after two previous Creating Scotland events which took place earlier this year in Perth and Glasgow.

The event forms part of BiS’s activity to mark Europe Day, typically held on May 9 to celebrate peace and unity in Europe.

Announcing the line-up for the event, MacIntyre-Kemp argued that the current independence campaign is “the most conservative, boring politically-led … in history”.

Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp He said: “Successful indy movements from all over the world have been led by or heavily influenced creatives, playwrights, poets and even choirs – think of the playwright Václav Havel’s Czech ‘velvet revolution’ or the ‘singing revolution’ that led to the independence of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

“Here in Scotland we've been running the most conservative boring politically-led indy campaign in history and Creating Scotland is the antidote to that.”

Click here to find out more information.