VIDEO: Dandelion festival opens in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park

A three-day free festival has opened in Glasgow with live music, food, theatre performances and workshops exploring sustainability, community growing and climate action.

Dandelion, in the city’s Kelvingrove Park, will see performers including Newton Faulkner, Admiral Fallow, Rachel Sermanni and many more take to the stage alongside a creative programme for all ages.

© Andrew Cawley

Scientists, activists, technologists and writers will come together with chefs, musicians, artists and performers to spark conversations around Dandelion’s core theme of how people can creatively engage with topics such as food poverty, climate action and sustainability.

At the heart of the festival sits the Pavilion of Perpetual Light, a stage that not only glows, but grows.

Made from 60 of Dandelion’s unique 1x1metre accelerated growing cubes, with live vegetable plants inside, the striking 10-metre-tall art installation is a ‘living’ backdrop to the weekend’s line-up.

Music Director for Dandelion, Donald Shaw said: “Just as plants can grow from tiny seeds, great music can grow from small ideas that we nourish till they bloom into full art forms. After the pandemic, it seemed even more pronounced to consider the medicinal value of music and its positive impact on mental health, social cohesion and community spirit – similar to the visceral experience of feeling the earth in your hands and the joy you get from watching something grow, so music plays a very important part in this creative programme.’

“All of the musicians who feature on our Dandelion Festivals line-up have a passion for the values of Dandelion, sharing our beliefs in environmentalism and individual action against climate change. We very much anticipate bringing people together around the special ‘Pavilion of Perpetual Light’ installation, surrounded in the iconic splendour of Kelvingrove Park.”

Dandelion Festival, Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow, June 17-19