Burns&Beyond to tempt you out and about in January

Burns&Beyond returns at the end of January with a range of Rabbie Burns related events to tempt you away from your own fireside.

There will be live concerts celebrating the life and legacy of Robert Burns with traditional and contemporary art and culture from all over Scotland and way beyond its shores. This is the sixth edition of the festival which will include live music, poetry, and dance in some of the more unusual venues in the city centre as well as those we know and love.

The Burns&Beyond Festival Club will be on at Assembly Rooms from 25 to 28 January with live music and family events, ceilidh dancing and Burns Night celebrations.

On Burns Night itself, Thursday 25 January, The Callum Easter TV Special – Live at Burns&Beyond, presents an evening of spectacular music and performance, as Callum Easter & The Roulettes are joined by a selection of very special guests, inviting audiences into a dark and immersive kaleidoscope of sound and vision.

The Leith songwriter’s methods constantly shift, blending elements of rock’n’roll and R’n’B with an endless sense of experimentation. It promises to be a night or free-wheeling anarchy, that Burns himself would have been proud of.

On Saturday 27 January, genre-crossing composer and producer Anna Meredith brings together the worlds of classical, electronic and pop, as one of the most innovative voices in UK music. Renowned for her exhilarating and ecstatic live shows, along with her band she creates high energy synths, brass, and pounding rhythms, sprinkled with moments of beauty and poise.

After building an established career in the classical world and releasing two critically acclaimed EPs, her much-anticipated debut album, Varmints, won the 2016 Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award, whilst in 2019, the Mercury Prize shortlisted follow-up – FIBS – received critical acclaim once again, being named Electronic Sound’s Album of the Year, and featuring in the New York Times and Pitchfork’s Best Experimental Albums of 2019. This will be Anna’s first live show in Edinburgh since her 2021 sold-out show at the Edinburgh International Festival.

On Sunday 29 January, Burns&Beyond presents one of the most important voices in UK contemporary music, with Mercury Prize nominee Nadine Shah. Songwriter, musician, artist and proud exponent of the North-East, Shah is an engaging and stunning performer, so this exclusive show at the Assembly Rooms promises to be something special.Nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for her 2017 album ‘Holiday
Destination’, having recently returned to live performance, including opening for Edinburgh’s Young Fathers, and ahead of the release of her much anticipated fifth album Filthy Underneath to be released in February, Shah returns to the capital for an exhilarating full live show at the Assembly Rooms.

Nadine Shah said: “Edinburgh is very quickly becoming one of my favourite cities. I’ve always had a real soft spot for it. Careful, treat me too well and I may just end up moving there. I look forward to seeing you all at the show.”

Annual Burns&Beyond collaborators the National Museum of Scotland will be hosting a spectacular Scottish celebration on Friday 26 January with Museum Lates: Big Burns Ceilidh. Part of the hugely popular Museum Lates series, this special Burns Night edition presents a night like no other, with an evening of twirlin’ and birlin’ on a grand-scale with the Jacobites Ceilidh Band providing the tunes in the beautiful setting of the Grand Gallery. Between ceilidh sets revellers can enjoy drinks and food, experience fun Burns-themed talks and activities with their curators, explore the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition and visit a selection of the museum’s galleries at night

Alan Thomson, Co-Director of Unique Events and Burns&Beyond Festival, said: “We are thrilled to announce the return of Burns&Beyond for its sixth edition, presenting another exciting programme of incredible artists and performances across the city centre. It is a huge privilege to welcome Anna Meredith and Nadine Shah to perform at the festival, adding to the growing list of world-class artists who have joined us in Edinburgh to help celebrate the Bard. We’ll be releasing details of more events and performers in the coming weeks, ensuring Edinburgh will once again celebrate Burns Night in style.”

National Museum of Scotland Engagement Manager Bryony Hope said: “We’re excited to be hosting our next Museum Late in January as part of the Burns & Beyond festivities. It is set to be a very special night, with a giant ceilidh in our Grand Gallery and lots of fun Burns-themed talks and activities around the museum.”

Tickets for all events go on sale Tuesday 21 November, 10.00am from www.burnsandbeyond.com
Further events to be announced in the coming weeks for the Burns&Beyond Festivals Club at the Assembly Rooms include more live music and a range of family events. Burns&Beyond is created and produced by Edinburgh based creatives Unique Events