ASCI 2025 Robert Burns Night Supper
5pm Saturday, January 25, 2025
Biltmore DoubleTree Hotel, Asheville, NC

EVENT INFORMATION:

Watch highlights from 2024 Burns Night

Summary

  • After an over 40 year career of weekly Celtic roots music radio broadcast including NPR’s Thistle and Shamrock, we are excited that Fiona Ritchie will be traveling from Scotland to join us in-person to celebrate Burns Night and the bard of Scotland’s 266th birthday.
  • Proceeds raised from sponsorships and our 2025 Burns Night Fundraiser charity auction & raffle will be contributed toward regional hurricane disaster relief.  Proceeds from ticket sales will be contributed toward The Thistle and Shamrock Roots Music Collection at UNCA.
  • Entertainment includes piper Alex Stewart, fiddler Andrew Finn Magill, and dancers from the Carpenter Academy of Irish Dance.
  • Burns Night Seminar will be co-hosted by Fiona Ritchie during a cash bar reception with complimentary warm Scottish appetizers.
  • Optional Scotch and Spirits Tasting will be hosted by Highland Brewing’s Oscar Wong.
  • Event includes a full traditional Burns Night ceremony, three course dinner with selection of main course, and wee drams of single-male Scotch Whisky to toast the haggis, and an after-hours Cèilidh.
  • Dinner menu is Cock-a-Leekie soup, selection of main course 1) Herb crusted chicken breast with Alabama white BBQ sauce, 2) Pan seared salmon served with honey whole grain mustard glaze, or 3) Vegan medley all served with Potato Gratin, and Sticky Toffee Pudding. 

Burns Night Fundraiser

  • Please consider participating as a bidder, donor, or sponsor to our 2025 Burns Night Fundraiser online auction and raffle.
  • All proceeds from the 2025 Burns Night Fundraiser will be used for hurricane disaster recovery by contribution to regional charities.
  • Separate from this fundraiser, all proceeds from Burns Night ticket sales will help fund The Thistle and Shamrock Roots Music Collection at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.  
  • Sponsorships are available for $300 to $2500 or you may contribute any amount you wish. Sponsorships closed Monday January 20, 2025.
  • If you would like to become a donor, sponsor, or have other questions, please feel free to contact our volunteer fundraising coordinator Jennifer Collier Wilson <gdcollierwilson@gmail.com>

Support Burns Night

  • Please request event promotional cards to share with friends. 
  • Please download, print and post the Burns Night flyer at your school, work, or shop.
  • With two-clicks you can easily help promote this Burns Night event if you can’t attend by responding to this Facebook event and invite your friends.  Just expressing interest really helps to feed the algorithm and is an quick and free way to help ASCI promote this event.  Thank You!
  • Consider your organization being a Facebook co-host of Burns Night and we would be glad to reciprocate for your events if desired.   We are also open to other co-promotional efforts on social media.
  • Contributing promotional material to our event brochure table is free if you have a Celtic or Scottish related event, organization, or business to share with our guests. 

Hotel Booking

  • For those who wish to stay overnight after Burns Night, a special group room rate of $99 (plus tax) is available at the Biltmore DoubleTree.  
  • Reservation Method:  In order for the guests to make their individual reservations contact the Hotel’s Reservations Department.  Reservations can be made 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling toll free: DoubleTree Reservations Desk: 1-800-222-TREE (1-800-222-8733). Please refer to the Robert Burns Night Supper. An additional option is to contact the DoubleTree by Hilton Asheville Biltmore directly at (828) 274-1800.

Evening’s Program: 

Reception – 5:00 pm – Hotel Lobby

  • Guests are greeted by piper Alex Stewart and fiddler Andrew Finn Magill playing during the reception.  Name tags, printed programs, and fundraiser participation information may be programs obtained at the reception desk.
  • Enjoy warm Scottish appetizers from St. Andrews Square in Waynesville.  Credit card or cash bar will be open throughout the evening. Wee drams of Scotch will be served to toast the haggis, or please purchase the beverage of your choice beforehand.  Guests may purchase bottles of house and premium red or white wine at the bars to share with others during dinner. 
  • Guests are asked to stand at their assigned seats in the dining room by 6:40pm.  All guests are invited to join the Parade of Tartans, and participants should assemble at 6:40 pm outside the dining room.

Charity Fundraiser – Online Auction and Raffle closes at 9:30 pm

Scotch and Spirits Tasting – 5:30 pm Stuyvesant Room

  • For those who have purchased whisky tasting tickets, and all those who wish to observe, pioneering local craft brewer, Oscar Wong, of Highland Brewing, will lead a tasting that will reflect the bending of tradition in the world of Scotland’s distilling innovation and evolving social preferences. Two traditional single-malt Scotch whiskys and two gins will be presented for your introduction to the new world of Scottish liquor. You are in for a welcome surprise even if you are not a Scotch or gin enthusiast. 
  • Oscar will be joined in the presentation by Matt Wingo, who has a 20 year career in whiskey. Matt was an honors graduate from the Hospitality program at Georgia State University, and has represented everything from small distilleries to large brands like The Glenlivet, Chivas Regal, Jefferson’s Bourbon, and more. He has a passion for spirits and offers a wealth of knowledge and history, and is always eager to teach what he has learned over the years.
  • The cost for this optional tasting is $50 and tickets are limited to 30 participants and are sure to sell out.

A Thistle & Shamrock Retrospective Interview with Fiona Ritchie – 5:30 pm Vanderbilt Room

  • Join Wayfaring Stangers’ co-authors and long time friends Doug Orr and Fiona Ritchie for a question and answer interview highlighting Fiona’s four decade adventure of enriching millions with the world’s most popular Celtic roots music public radio broadcast. Fiona will introduce her donation of The Thistle & Shamrock Roots Music Collection of around 4000 CDs to the UNCA Center for Roots Music.

Opening Ceremony – 6:45 pm Burghley Ballroom

  • Henchmen invite guests to stand by their assigned seats by 6:45 pm. Guests joining the Parade of Tartans should assemble at 6:40 pm in the west rear entrance lobby near the dining room.
  • Piper leads the Parade of Tartans to “Scotland the Brave” which is a Scottish patriotic song and one of several considered an unofficial national anthem of Scotland.  The original author of this classic is lost to history.
  • After the Henchmen have secured the room, Master of Ceremonies, Doug Orr, welcomes guests to be seated and introduces Co-Chair, Rick Lutovsky and Guest-Bard, Fiona Ritchie, to provide greetings and opening comments.  Previous Burns Night Event Director Emeritus, Cary Findlay, is recognized on behalf of Dunkeld & Birnam, Scotland.
  • The Reverend, Rich Shader, gives the “Selkirk Grace”.  On a visit to the Earl of Selkirk’s home, Burns recited an old version of a traditional Scottish grace.  The guests were impressed and Burns published it as the “Selkirk Grace” in their honor.
  • Please stand as the Henchmen escort the Chef carrying the haggis, neeps, and tatties with the Piper playing “A Man’s, A Man for A’ That” (1795), expressing Burns’ egalitarian ideals that one’s value is character and honesty, not wealth or social class.
  • The Rear Henchman, presents “(Address) To a Haggis” which was written by Burns in 1786 to celebrate haggis as a symbol of Scots patriotism.
  • The Whiskey & Quaich Bearers, pour a wee dram to toast the haggis.  The Toastmaster, lead us in toasting the haggis: “To the Haggis, To the Haggis, To the Haggis”

Dinner Program and Entertainment – 7:15 pm Burghley Ballroom

  • Tonight’s menu is Cock-a-Leekie soup, selection of main course 1) Herb crusted chicken breast with Alabama white BBQ sauce, 2) Pan seared salmon served with honey whole grain mustard glaze, or 3) Vegan medley all served with Potato Gratin, and Sticky Toffee Pudding.  Coffee and tea are available on beverage tables in the dining room.
  • Piper Alex Stewart, fiddler Andrew Finn Magill, and dancers from the Carpenter Academy of Irish Dance will perform.
  • Steve Cairns of Traveling Souls Tours introduces UNCA’s 10-day trip to Scotland August 29-September 7, 2025.
  • Asheville Sister Cities Inc. president, Ken Nelson, describes the ASCI program and recognizes our fundraising contributors. Guest-Bard, Fiona Ritchie, is recognized on behalf of Asheville Sister Cities and its Dunkeld and Birnam Committee.
  • Fiona Ritchie presents the Immortal Memory oration on Burn’s life to emphasize the reasons why his memory is, and should be, immortal.
  • Toastmasters Patrick Wilson and Jennifer Collier Wilson present “Toast to the Lassies” and “The Reply to the Laddies”.
  • Bard and Piper are joined by all guests in singing “Auld Lang Syne” on the back of the program. This Burns classic exhorts to toast to the memory of old friends whom one may have forgotten. Translated into more than 40 languages, it has spread throughout the world to celebrate Hogmanay, New Year, ceilidhs, and as a farewell to many gatherings becoming the most popular Scots song of all time.

After-Hours Cèilidh – 9:30 pm Dining Room Lobby 

  • 2025 Burns Night Fundraiser auction and raffle winners are announced. 
  • Guest may provide CD of favorite rousing Celtic music.
  • Credit card or cash bar will remain open.

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