Big Burns Supper: Dumfries crowd enjoys lantern parade 26 January 2014 Last updated at 15:11 A procession lit up by 1,000 lanterns drew crowds to the streets of Dumfries on Saturday as part of its Big Burns Supper celebrations. Performers, dancers and musicians took to the streets in the centrepiece homecoming carnival event. More than 30 groups and organisations took part in the parade, accompanied by floats and huge puppets. Big Burns Supper director Graham Main described the occasion as "truly spectacular." "What blew me away was seeing so many people coming out to support the arts," he said. There were rugby players, the Dumfries and Galloway Special Olympics team and our local LGBT group alongside medieval re-enactors, schoolchildren, and pipe and samba bands. And as the procession passed the statue of Robert Burns the Big Burns Supper chair, Maureen Farrell, stopped to lay a bunch of red roses. Mr Main said the "costumes, colour, music and enthusiasm" had been "incredible." "It was brilliant to have so many people out on the streets to celebrate Burns Night," he said. Robert Burns spent the final years of his life in Dumfries where he wrote some of his most famous works. The three-day festival in his honour is now in its third year.