The Homecoming begins with a parade through Alloway. It�s the hottest ticket in town, but Keith Bruce has 10 to give away.

The inauguration of Homecoming Scotland 2009 as the start of a grand celebration of the 250th birthday of Robert Burns is a hard thing to pin down: Dumfries, as ever, is keen to confuse Ayrshire's ownership claims with events prior to the actual anniversary. However, it will be on the eve of Burns Night, Saturday, January 24, that First Minister Alex Salmond presides over a gathering of the specially invited at the Brig O'Doon House Hotel in Alloway for the official Homecoming launch. Tickets for that may be scarce, but so are those for the procession that will begin Homecoming through the streets and historic locations of the village itself, and it promises to be quite a spectacle. Iconic Burns, as the event is called, is being created by Neil Butler's UZ organisation and features the work of a handful of the artists with whom he has collaborated in the past, at a time when he is moving the company into artistic production rather than event management.

The team is a very strong one, with the pyrotechnics of the finale in the hands of The World Famous, whose inventive way with fireworks has illuminated Big in Falkirk, and lighting design by Phil Supple, who also lit the Half Life show by Angus Farquhar's NVA company and the National Theatre of Scotland in Kilmartin Glen. He has often worked with designer Graeme Gilmour, recently on Illuminating Links, British Waterways' celebration of the opening of a phase of the Forth and Clyde canal works at Firhill basin in Glasgow in October 2007. Gilmour's output spans theatre, television and site-specific work and he is probably still best celebrated for the multi-award-winning Shockheaded Peter, where his Victorian cut-outs were an essential ingredient of an international hit which played Glasgow Tramway very early in its existence.

"I wanted to show how Burns remains an attraction for contemporary artists," says Butler. "And here are some of Scotland's most exciting contemporary artists coming together to pay tribute to the Bard."

For Iconic Burns, Gilmour is creating the centrepiece, a mobile sculpture based on a relief which can be seen in the birthplace museum at Burn's Cottage in Alloway showing Tam O'Shanter making his escape over the Brig o'Doon on his trusty mare Meg, the witch grappling at her tail. Gilmour's version is rather larger, some four and a half metres high and seven metres long, and is presently under construction at a farm on the outskirts of Girvan. It is being fabricated in a style that is entirely of his own devising, a shrink-wrapped steel structure, which followers of his work will recognise. As well as being beautiful in themselves, the pieces are designed to take light well and the partnership with Supple has produced a style particularly suited to outdoor public art events. It might sound hi-tech, but it really isn't. The propulsion for Tam and his mare will be provided by nine people pushing. Gilmour's equation of the horse-power required for this horse is "half a rugby team".

Butler has tried to maximise the visual impact of Gilmour's work by creating a series of points at which its progress will be halted so that it can be admired. The inspiration for the shape of the event came from another procession through the same area 186 years ago. It was then that Alloway's Burns Monument, designed by architect Thomas Hamilton, was unveiled, funded by public subscription through the particular enthusiasm of the Masonic Lodge. On that day in 1823, a series of floral arches were erected along the road from Burns Cottage, as images from time record. Those arches will be created at the end of this month along the route, with diferent illumination by Supple casting a fresh light on Gilmour's work at each point.

Demand to be part of Iconic Burns, the opening Homecoming event, has been very strong, with 15% of applications for tickets coming from overseas. More than 2000 people have asked for tickets and a ballot will decide who the 1200 fortunate people will be. They will be asked to gather at Burns Cottage at 7.30pm where the evening's programme will begin with characteristic interventions and manifestations from Ian Smith's Mischief La-Bas company.

This week, Smith was auditioning for a real baby to play the part of the Bard, and another tableau of the poet's early years will involve Rabbie's father chasing his mother round the bedroom in the style of Benny Hill.

"We will be both irreverent and give people a sense of hospitality," promises Smith, who says he approaches the Burns industry with a "non-exclusive, jolly and anarchic attitude".

Expect characters based on those in Burns's life and work to interact with the audience both at the cottage and along the route of the procession. The Mischief Burns Tribe, specially costumed in attire which "hints at tartan without fully getting there", will be distributing mulled wine from barrels on yolks across their necks. The Brig Issue Vendors will be distributing a scandal sheet with some juicy gossip about the ploughman poet's shenanigans.

Look out, too, for the Mischief Minstrels, the Third Degree Burns, and their take on the Bard's songbook. Along one section of the roadway, a number of mischievous tableaux will include a tattooist at work on a red red rose on a Burns fan's naked back.

A local pipe band will lead the way along a route that takes in the Auld Kirkyard and ends at Brig O'Doon itself for more inventive Supple lighting of the environment, and pyrotechnics from The World Famous, along with a mass singalong of, inevitably, Auld Lang Syne. The First Minister's party will, at this point, become witness to the proceedings, or part of the show, depending on your point of view.

One might speculate on what Rabbie's might have been, which is exactly the intention of Butler and his team. "I want to make people think about Burns in a different way," says Butler - and he, Smith and Gilmour have certainly done that already.

Just the tickets

• The free tickets for Iconic Burns in Alloway on Saturday, January 24, are already over-subscribed, but The Herald has five pairs for the first readers to e-mail arts@theherald.co.uk with the name of Tam O'Shanter's drinking pal.