A POPULAR visitor attraction near Sanquhar has announced that a music festival on the site will return later this year - with a chart-topping British pop band from the 'noughties' at the top of the bill.

Scouting For Girls, whose debut album topped the UK charts in 2008 and whose single This Ain't A Love Song reached number one two years later, will headline the 'Music at the Multiverse' event at the Crawick Multiverse.

Other acts on the 2023 bill include Celtic trad rockers Skerryvore and Scottish rock legends Big Country, along with a host of local Dumfries and Galloway talent, including The Dangleberries, the Mary Barclay Band, Big Time Louis, Pedro and the Pirates, and local Kelloholm DJ Malcolm X. 

This year's event will take place on September 2 and 3, with further bands to be added to the bill in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the Multiverse team has announced that when the attraction - a stunning 'artland' on the site of a former open cast coal mine, with a design inspired by space, astronomy and cosmology as well as the site's own ecology - reopens for the 2023 season it will do so with a larger car park and a new 'Aires' site.

A Crawick spokesperson said: "While the site currently remains closed, we are pleased to be able to continue to invest in improving the customer experience for our visitors to the Multiverse.

"Thanks to funding support from South of Scotland Enterprise and Dumfries and Galloway Council to add to our own funds, we are able to extend our car parking provision.

"This will also enable us to offer an additional service and launch a new Aires site when we re-open for the season.

"Over the next few weeks, we shall have heavy plant and machinery on site to undertake the works.

"During this time, please note that there will be no public access, including pedestrian access to the site. As we hope you will appreciate, this is for everyone's health and safety.

"Thank you for your understanding and co-operation - and look out for a further update on our plans for re-opening coming soon!"

More information is available at www.crawickmultiverse.co.uk