Past projects
Cairn Chorus prides itself on collaboration, drawing on available local funding and talent to commission new songs and poetry to produce unique, immersive experiences for audiences capturing the essence of our local environment.
Spring 2026: Street Choirs Festival
Street Choirs Festival Friday 12th - Sunday 14th June 2026, Dumfries
The Street Choirs Festival is a fabulous event where singers from across the UK meet together to take part in a unique, a capella experience, sharing our voices and sending out our message on the streets. 2026 was the 42nd Street Choir Festival, and notably, the first Street Choir Festival in Scotland. This year, Street Choirs came to Dumfries and was hosted by Cairn Chorus, Songwave and the Catstrand Singers.
The chosen theme this year was "Equality and Love" with Robert Burns featuring in our very own logo!
The history of the Street Choirs Festival
The Festival has been held every year since 1984, in different venues around the UK, the majority in the north of England. Participating choirs all have an ethos of singing, in support of peace, human rights, climate and social justice etc. A significant aspect of the weekend is outdoor performance.
Our Musical Director, Kate Howard was involved in setting up the original festival and some of our choir members who hail from the north of England have links with choirs there. Two years ago, Kate felt that it was time to bring the Festival to Scotland and a small but fantastically organised committee was formed to plan the event.
Friday 12th June - Host Choirs' Concert at Easterbook Hall
The weekend started on Friday with registration at Easterbrook Hall and our lovely volunteers, looking striking in their neon yellow T-shirts welcoming in total 860 singers!
The evening then started with a performance by our host choirs including Cairn Chorus, led by Kate Howard, followed by another of Kate's choirs, Balkan Lassies. The evening was completed with a Ceilidh.
Pictured are some of the volunteers and below are videos from the concert.
Saturday 13th June - Massed Sing at Dock Park, Dumfries
Saturday was an early start and back to Easterbrook Hall for with a rehearsal for all participating choirs in preparation for the massed sing at Midday. Led again by the amazing Kate Howard, the sound of 800+ singers in this fantastic venue was amazing! Below are some videos from the rehearsal and some photographs and a wee flavour of the sights and sounds from the massed sing.
Saturday 13th June - Busking in Dumfries town centre
After a rousing massed sing, the choirs then descended on Dumfries town centre for 3 hours of busking, with each choir taking a 20 minute slot at an allocated location in the town. This gave not only members of the public a chance to hear each choir sperately, but for choirs to watch and listen to each other.
Included below are some photographs and video snippets and from the host choirs' busking slot.
Saturday 13th June - Concert at Easterbrook Hall
Saturday was finished off with a concert featuring each of the 35 participating choirs, performing in turn to a delighted audience.
Sunday 14th June - Workshops
Sunday saw a range of workshops in various Dumfries venues. These were well attended by participating singers and included workshops on Gaelic song, 'songs of hope', Breton dance and song, 'singing with resistance', drumming, song writing, 'songs for changing times', Scots and Burns songs (with Emily Smith pictured below), and chartist songs (with Paul Guppy also pictured below).
Goodbye from Dumfries!
On Sunday afternoon, all participants and organisers departed, tired, but with hearts and souls full! Until the next Street Choir Festival! Cairn Chorus and the participating choirs are grateful for all participants for attending and making this a special weekend. However, thanks and credit must also go to our Musical Director Kate Howard for her vision and unrelenting enthusiasm, skill and drive in pulling this together, to a fantastic committee who committed so much time and energy over the past two years in planning the event and to all the volunteers in your neon T-shirts for your unwavering efforts on the weekend providing support and guidance to all the singers and organisers and for making this happen!
More photos and videos of the festival are available online - click on the button.
And below is a flavour of some of the feedback from participants.
Spring 2025: Galloway Sangstreams
In 2025, Cairn Chorus wanted to revisit the beautiful songs we had commissioned for the Cairn Valley Song Cycle (see below). Having secured funds, new songs, soundscapes, sonification, poetry and graphics were created in collaboration with local musicians and artists around the themes of life, land and legacy.
This was a truly community effort from the choir, its committee and its supporters. We were joined by:
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The award winning Emily Smith and Jamie McClennan who not only performed with us but composed three of the songs
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Award winning Hugh McMillan, local Penpont poet and regular performer with Cairn Chorus
Lucy Blane, a local musician and sound artist created a beautiful soundscape moving between snapshots of life on Galloway land, conjuring the physical environments of the urban and rural, natural and human, past and present, heritage and legacy. This was supported by Jo Ray, a local environmental artist and Kara Millen, a sustainability educator as well as choir members who contributed to the sound and images created in this project.
We were indebted to Liz Wyly and Andy Fairley who arranged the pieces for our village band who performed the prelude and interval music and with the choir.
Spring 2017: Cairn Valley Song Cycle
In 2015 Moniaive and Glencairn won a Creative Scotland's Creative Place Award which culminated in a year long programme of events weaving music, art and poetry representing the three rivers running through the village of Moniaive. Cairn Chorus created a Song Cycle in 2017 where our Music Director Kate Howard commissioned 10 women composers to write pieces about our community and connection to our rural landscape in Moniaive, and how changes in a rural community affect us. The composers reflected on migrations of communities through time, especially the current Syrian refugee crisis as well as the 18th and 19th century land clearances in large swathes of Scotland
The choir performed this with Galloway Agreement and The Scottish Ensemble as part of the Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival.
Below, our Music Director Kate Howard tells you about the project:
Spring 2016: Songs of Separation
Our sell out concert with Songs of Separation as part of the Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival 2016 was a treat for audience and performers alike. The choir had a fantastic day putting the concert together with the Songs of Separation girls and their hard work well and truly paid off as the collaborative pieces came together beautifully. You can find out more about Songs of Separation here.
Songs were from the American shape note tradition, Gaelic, Sweden, Macedonia, the UK, and Bulgaria.
