Dumfries and Galloway will host next year's Royal Highland Show
Dumfries and Galloway will host the Royal Highland Show in 2021, it has been confirmed.
The show is Scotland’s largest outdoor agricultural event, attracting up to 200,000 people each year and is the premier showcase for the food, farming and rural industry.
It was scheduled to take place in Islington, near Edinburgh, from 18 June to 21 June 2020, but had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Each year, a different part of Scotland leads the programme and 2020 was the turn of Dumfries and Galloway. Due to this year’s exceptional circumstances the directors of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland voted in favour of the region remaining as the host region for 2021.
The presidential team, led by ITV Border broadcaster and Lord Lieutenant of Dumfries, Fiona Armstrong, welcomed the news. She said: "This is wonderful news and such a boost for Dumfries & Galloway. And we all need a boost at the moment.
“We would like to thank the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland for their generosity in allowing this to happen. A chance like only comes around every eight years.
“We had ambitious plans to highlight the region and it would have been a great shame if those had come to nothing.
“This year’s show was a ‘virtual’ one – and very successful. Next year’s will hopefully be the real deal allowing us to showcase D&G as a place of excellence for its food, farming, coast, countryside, art, culture, heritage and tourism.
“And we are looking forward to the region’s much-loved Belties having a starring role.”
Cathy Agnew, DG Unlimited Chair, said: “Dumfries & Galloway has a large and vibrant creative community and the Royal Highland Show is a wonderful chance for us to help bring some of this immense artistic talent to the attention of a diverse national and international audience, at the same time as encouraging young people to learn more about their own region.”
Bill Gray, RHASS Chairman, added: “We are really looking forward to shining a spotlight on Dumfries & Galloway at the 2021 Royal Highland Show. The Presidential team has some big plans for showcasing their region.
“With prizewinning livestock, gorgeous landscapes and top-quality food and drink producers, the region has much to celebrate – Dumfries & Galloway generates enormous value to Scotland’s rural sectors, and we can’t wait to display this to everyone this year.”
Video report by Sandy McCracken.