Dundee Festive Events Round Up

Dundee Festive Events Round Up

Wednesday, 1 November 2023

Now that the nights are drawing in, it’s easy to want to stay cocooned in the comfort of your home, but Dundee has a fab calendar of events worth wrapping up and venturing out for. Explore charming Christmas markets and pop-up shops, adorned with twinkling lights, where every product tells a story. Discover the joy of shopping small as you peruse handmade crafts, artisanal goods, and festive treats. Once you’re organised with your Christmas shopping, enjoy a wholesome evening at a light switch on or show.

I’ve organised the main part of this list by date, but scroll to the bottom to see full details for the pop up events which are running for longer. Events are free to attend unless otherwise mentioned.

November Events

Thursday 16th

Broughty Ferry Lights Switch On / 6pm
Panto performances, Christmas sing along, rides, catering and more

Festive Market & Cosy Crumble Pop Up at Sweetpea Cafe / 6pm-8.30pm
Shop small and enjoy a cosy vegan crumble to keep you warm while watching the lights switch on.
find out more

Saturday 18th

Brawnches Festival Begins* / Keiller Centre / 10am-4pm
A week long community celebration with workshops and activities to encourage you to connect and reset for the changing season.
find out more

Monday 20th

Dreamland and Vintage Clothing Pop Up Shop Begins*

Thursday 23rd

West End Christmas Fortnight Begins*

West End Christmas Market / Miller’s Wynd Car Park / 4pm-8pm
Christmas gifts, hot food and drink stalls, music and entertainment. Lights switch on 7pm. Many West End shops will have late opening and special offers too.
find out more

Friday 24th

Tea Green Festive Design Market / V&A / 10am-5pm
Curated pop-up market featuring a fab selection of Scottish designers and makers. Line up varies each day.
find out more

Saturday 25th

Tea Green Festive Design Market / V&A / 10am-5pm
find out more

Cambo Festive Green Market / 11am-4pm
Local makers with a focus on sustainability for a greener Christmas. Lots of Cambo grown dried greenery and flowers for your festive decorations and gifts to grow from our plant shop.
find out more

Christmas Fayre at Discovery Point / 11am-4pm
Local makers, crafters, food and drink with choir performance and activities for children.
find out more

CRAFTED / DCA / 11am-5.30pm
Browse and buy work from contemporary makers from across Scotland, with a wide range of great gift ideas.
find out more

The Yard Dundee / The Steeple / 11am-4pm
Independent makers from across Scotland with guest food pop up - Marwicks Vegan kitchen. Entry £2 (under 16s free)
find out more

A Christmas Carol begins at the Dundee Rep
Tickets from £15
find out more 

Dundee Hooley / City Square / from 3pm

The streets will be filled with a torchlit procession led by the Lord Provost, accompanied by community groups and performances from Thingumajig Theatre and Urban Moves.

Sunday 26th

Tea Green Festive Design Market / V&A / 10am-5pm
find out more

Cambo Festive Green Market / 11am-4pm
find out more

Christmas Fayre at Discovery Point / 11am-4pm
find out more

CRAFTED / DCA / 11am-5.30pm
find out more

December Events

Friday 1st

Wreath Making / Sew Confident Broughty Ferry / various times across 1st-3rd
Create a festive wreath to hang proudly on your door, materials supplied. £70
find out more

WinterFest / details TBC / begins*

Saturday 2nd

Christmas at the McManus / 10am-4pm
Pop-up festive market with independent makers, festive family crafts, activities and storytelling
find out more

Kingennie Christmas Market / Forbes of Kingennie / 12-4pm
Carefully curated stalls with a range of homeware, foodie finds and seasonal decor
find out more

The Yard Dundee / The Steeple / 11am-4pm
Independent makers from across Scotland with guest food pop up - Marwicks Vegan kitchen. Entry £2 (under 16s free)
find out more

Sunday 3rd

Community Christmas Ceilidh / Gate Church / 3pm-6pm
find out more

Kingennie Christmas Market / Forbes of Kingennie / 12-4pm
find out more

Thursday 7th

Christmas Concert of Music and Light / Morgan Academy / 5pm-6.15pm
Come along and be treated to performances by the local school choir and watch the magical light show in the fantastic grounds of the iconic local building.

Double Doors Studios Pop-Up Begins*

Saturday 9th

The Yard Dundee / The Steeple / 11am-4pm
Independent makers from across Scotland with guest food pop up - Marwicks Vegan kitchen. Entry £2 (under 16s free)
find out more

Verdant works Christmas Fun Day / 11am-4pm
local crafters, designers, food and drink, performance from Loadsaweeminsinging choir and children’s activities
find out more

Tea Green Festive Market / Bowhouse / 10am-5pm
Curated pop-up market featuring a fab selection of Scottish designers and makers

find out more

Andie Christmas Pop Up / Creative Studios / 10am-4pm
Annual pop-up of Creative Studios brands and invited friends. Metallium Jewellery workshop and Poppy Bubbles show for the kids. More workshops to be announced

find out more

Sunday 10th

Tea Green Festive Market / Bowhouse / 10am-5pm
Curated pop-up market featuring a fab selection of Scottish designers and makers
find out more

Andie Christmas Pop Up / Creative Studios / 10am-4pm

find out more

Thursday 14th

Light Show at Baxter Park / 6pm-6.45pm

Sleeping Beauty begins at the Whitehall Theatre
Tickets from £16
find out more

Saturday 16th

The Yard Dundee / The Steeple / 11am-4pm
Independent makers from across Scotland with guest food pop up - Marwicks Vegan kitchen. Entry £2 (under 16s free)
find out more

Sunday 17th

Generator Winter Market / Generator Projects / 12-6pm
music, food, refreshments, and makers
find out more

Thursday 21st

Light Show at Malcolm Street Pocket Park / 6pm-6.45pm

Night Market / Larick Centre / 5.30pm-8.30pm

*Pop-Up Event Details

Festive Boutique at Double Door Studios

Double Door Studios are once again transforming their exhibition space for the fourth year of their popular Festive Boutique! The studios in central Dundee offer a unique and welcoming shopping experience, and showcase a curated selection of handmade gifts with a focus on items you won’t find elsewhere.

7 Ward Road, DD1 1LP / 7th-24th December
Open: Tuesdays 11am-8pm, Thursdays 5pm-8pm, Saturdays 10am-5pm, Sundays 11am-4pm
find out more

West End Christmas Fortnight

A wonderful fortnight of events hosted by businesses, community groups, libraries and schools in the West End. Christmas concerts, workshops, craft making, soup kitchen and more.

23rd November - 6th December / various events
find out more

Dreamland and Vintage Clothing Pop-Up Shop

Dundee Design House / 20th November - 3rd December
Open: Weekdays 12-5pm, Weekends 11am-5.30pm
find out more

WinterFest

Details to be confirmed

1st-24th December

We’re certainly spoilt for choice this year! I’ve popped quite a few in my diary and will be sure to share them on my Instagram stories @wee_dundee. If you have an event you’d like me to add to this list email hello@wee-dundee.co.uk and I’ll pop it on.

Introducing: Wee Dundee

Introducing: Wee Dundee

Monday, 2 January 2023

It’s been a while, so long in fact that you might have forgotten that Vegan Dundee (the blog) existed. If you do remember, then Vegan Dundee has now become Wee Dundee! This has been on the back burner for some time now as I couldn’t work out how best to take this change of direction. After a Christmas break with lots of time to think about it, I think we’ve figured it out. Oh and don’t worry - we’re still vegan!

Wee Dundee will be a guide to indie businesses in Dundee, from food and drink to shopping, events, and activities. At the moment the categories are Shop Small, Food & Drink, Things to Do, and Wee Scotland. Here’s what I hope they’re going to cover:

Shop Small

As well as local business features, there will be shop small gift guides, sustainable swaps, and charity shop challenges. Eventually, I’d love for this to become more of a directory but that’s going to take some time!

Food & Drink
This one’s pretty self-explanatory. This category is where you can find the old Vegan Dundee posts - sadly lots have been archived as many of the businesses are no more. As with the old days, we’ll be on the lookout for Dundee’s newest vegan offerings.

Things to Do
Think workshops, classes, markets, cute wee walks, date nights, mate dates, and more! This category is basically an excuse for us to try new things and see what Dundee has to offer. I’ll be sure to include free activities too.

Wee Scotland
There are so many fab indie businesses outside of Dundee to see too, so it would be a shame to completely rule them out. While this will mainly be the nearby surrounding areas, sometimes we’ll feature day trips and mini break ideas elsewhere in Scotland.

As you can see there’s lots planned and it’s going to take some time to grow this wee blog. It’s one of the reasons I’ve not launched sooner, but with the cost of living it’s certainly a make or break time for many an independent business. It might just be a side project for me, but if even a handful of people find out about a business through one of Wee Dundee’s posts it would be amazing.

Before I go, I should probably introduce myself. I’m Jilly, and previously I ran Vegan Dundee with my friend Falda (who’s now living in England). I’m a brand designer & photographer who works with indie businesses - for transparency I will point out when a blog post features a client. I’ll mostly be out and about blogging with my husband David, but occasionally other friends will pop up.

If you’d like to stay up-to-date, you can find Wee Dundee on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok (that’s right, I’ll also be attempting video content this time around). I’d love to hear your thoughts or if you have a business that you’d like to be featured. You can also email me at hello@wee-dundee.co.uk.

Happy Veganuary!

Happy Veganuary!

Wednesday, 9 January 2019

Happy New Year! We're back from our Christmas break which was mostly spent eating lots of homemade food with a mix of visiting, hosting and all round lovely time with family and friends. It's almost a year since we started our Vegan Dundee blog! We'll be celebrating at the start of February and take a look back at our most popular posts. For now, you can see our top posts from Instagram above featuring Padrino Pizza, Heart Space Whole Foods, Dundee Vegan Festival, Sea No Waste, Tonic and Simpsons. 

It feels like ages since we've blogged as so much has happened with vegan menus and products appearing everywhere for the biggest Veganuary yet! This is so exciting but we'll have our work cut out trying to get round to reviewing everything. Especially as quite a few places are trialing menus just for this month so fingers crossed the results are a success and the new options will stick around for the future. You've probably seen most of the new options but just in case, here's what to look out for in Dundee:

Frankie & Benny's
They have just launched a full vegan menu with burgers, pizza and pasta (including Mac No Cheese), there's also 'I Ain't No Chicken Parmigana Grill' and a 'Not Hot Dog'. Even better, Frankie and Benny's is now offering 5 vegan dessert options including a Cookies and Dream Sundae! See the full menu at The Hectic Vegan.

Marks & Spencers
Plant Kitchen is a whole new range of over 60 meals, snacks and ingredients, with plenty convenient comfort food! The range includes everything from pizza, lasagne and alternatives to meat, as well as delicious popcorn cauliflower and dirty fries. Yum!

McDonalds
McDonalds now offer a spicy veggie wrap that's vegan-friendly! It's made with red pesto goujons, relish and salad. There's a non-spicy mini version available in the Happy Meal too.

Pizza Hut
New Vegan Jack 'n' Ch**se pizza has joined the vegan veggie and Margherita pizzas. With Violife cheese and BBQ jackfruit and veg it's great to see more pizza options!

Boots
Two new sandwiches have been added to the Boots range, the Vegan All Day Breakfast (with veggie sausage and scrambled tofu) and Vegan BLT (with smoky maple carrot bacon). These are available in the meal deal so are handy if you're in need of lunch on the go or for the train.

Co-op
Co-op have added vegan options to their ready meals and sandwiches, featuring lots of BBQ jackfruit. They are also labeling their doughnuts as vegan now!

Greggs (in Dundee soon!)
The new vegan sausage roll has caused excitement among vegans across the country... until it turned out that they were only available in 900 Greggs, with none around Dundee and the rest of Scotland which isn't Edinburgh or Glasgow. The good news is that they have been so popular, with queues and sell-outs, that they are now being released in all 1800 stores! There isn't a date yet but we're very much looking forward to them coming to Dundee.

Which have you tried? Let us know if there's something we should add to the list! Of course, these are just the big chains but it's great to have convenient options especially when you're on the go. We love to support local businesses, especially those that have been catering for vegans for a long time and we'll get back to reviewing these soon!