Dundee to take part in Big Sleepout for first time

BEDTIME STORY: Author Irvine Welsh will read a bedtime story to participants

Hundreds of people are expected to take part when Dundee joins the Big Sleepout campaign to end homelessness, later this year .

The Sleep In The Park event in Slessor Gardens will take place at the same time as other sleepouts in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Organised by Edinburgh-based charity Social Bite, The Big Sleepout is part of a campaign to end homelessness in Scotland .

Nearly 9,000 people took part in last year’s event in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens, raising more than £3.6 million for the homeless in the process.

This year’s Sleepouts will see Scottish singers KT Tunstall and Amy Macdonald travel by helicopter to perform at each of the four host cities.

Author Irvine Welsh will also write a bedtime story that he will perform in Edinburgh and which will be broadcast to the other three cities.

Perth-born comedian Fred Macaulay will host the event and a “surprise” keynote speaker is also promised.

Last year Liam Gallagher, Deacon Blue, Amy Macdonald and Frightened Rabbit all played acoustic sets at the event in Edinburgh.

No tickets will be sold for the December events. Instead, members of the public and businesses can take part by reaching fundraising targets.

This year’s Edinburgh Sleepout will again take place in Princes Street Gardens, while the Aberdeen event will be in Duthie Park.

The Glasgow Sleepout will take place at the bandstand in Kelvingrove Park.

The Big Sleepout is organised by Social Bite, a social enterprise founded in Edinburgh by Josh Littlejohn and Alice Thompson.

The not-for-profit company runs sandwich shops in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Customers can pre-pay for food for the homeless and around a quarter of its staff are from homeless or severely deprived backgrounds.

Social Bite has been such a success, it has attracted interested from George Clooney and Leonardo Dicaprio.

Its first Sleepout in 2016 saw around 300 chief executives from businesses, academia and other high-profile Scots sleep in Princes Street Gardens.

Money raised helped build the Social Bite Village, which provides accommodation for homeless people for up to 18 months so they can rebuild their lives and find a permanent place to live.

The Big Sleepout was extended last year with nearly 9,000 people braving sub-zero temperatures to take part, including Bob Geldof and Sir Chris Hoy.

smorkis@thecourier.co.uk

Picture: PA. A previous Sleep in the Park event in Edinburgh saw people coming together to tackle homelessness.

Singer KT Tunstall is set to perform at each of the four host cities staging Big Sleepouts.

Comedian Fred Macaulay will host the event.