A diverse programme of more than 200 events over ten days has been revealed, including talks, music, theatre and film for all ages.
And the 2015 theme is the relationship between the city and the country.
Participants this year include writers Leila Aboulela, Laura Barnett, Chris Brookmyre, Jenny Colgan, Caroline Criado-Perez, Gavin Francis, Janice Galloway, Mairi Hedderwick, Sir John Lister-Kaye, Liz Lochhead, Val McDermid, Neel Mukherjee, Thomas Pakenham, Anthony Seldon, Malachy Tallack, Raymond Tallis and AN Wilson; EastEnders star Annette Badland; comedians Jon Holmes, Phill Jupitus and Hardeep Singh Kohli; politicians Alex Salmond and Vince Cable; broadcasters Frank Gardner, Bridget Kendall, Rev Richard Coles, John McKay, Mike Wooldridge, Marc Allum of the Antiques Roadshow and Gary Bell QC, star of BBC1’s The Legalizer; astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell; and legendary Corries folk musician Ronnie Browne.
In a special event, the festival will be celebrating the life of the Galloway-born poet and New Yorker journalist with an eight-hour ‘Alistair Reidathon’ of his work on September 27.
The festival is now one of the largest in the UK and the second largest in Scotland after Edinburgh. Set up more than a decade ago to help regenerate an economically disadvantaged rural community, the event now contributes more than £2.1M a year to the local economy.
