Festival
AROUND TOWN For more info go to LIST.CO.UK /FESTIVAL
HITLIST THE BEST FILMS, FESTS & FOOD
✽ CineFringe Film Festival See preview, left. Sweet Grassmarket, 243 3596, 31 Jul–3 Aug, 3pm, £16.50–£18.50 (£15–£17).
✽ Skeptics on the Fringe The longest- running and most varied festival of
scepticism gives daily informal talks on a wide range of topics where good old-fashioned evidence and reason is key to understanding. Banshee Labyrinth, 226 0000, 2–23 Aug, 7.50pm, free.
✽ Airpuddle and Boxsmall An
interactive play area for kids involving great big air pillows and a lot of bouncing. Adults, meanwhile, can browse the market, which provides the best in Scottish food, arts & crafts and design. Festival Square, 28 Jul–31 Aug, from 10am, free.
✽ Auld Reekie Roller Girls: Good Things
Come to Those Who Skate Thrills, spills and (probably) cake, as the lassies of roller derby get all
argy bargy on the track. The Twisted Thistles and Cannon Belles take on a couple of English teams, including London’s Brawl Saints. Meadowbank Sports Centre, 226 0000, 2 & 9 Aug, 2pm, £6.
✽ Festival Detours Live theatre, poetry and
art taking performers out of their comfort zone and placing them into unusual gallery surroundings. Across the festival there are performances from theatremaker Eilidh MacAskill, writer / poet John Osborne, poet Luke Wright and Meursault. See preview, page 95. Various venues, 6, 12, 17 & 19 Aug, £4.
CINEFRINGE The festival that fi lls a fi lm-shaped gap in August
N ow into its fifth year, small-scale short film festival CineFringe doesn’t exactly fill the hole left in August by the move of the Edinburgh International Film Festival to June. Yet the fact it exists at all adds a welcome alternative to the live arts offerings on the rest of the Fringe, and it’s to be applauded for a resourcefulness and commitment to quality which has seen it survive and grow.
The idea came to director John Ly nch when he found himself unable to screen a short film he’d made about the Fringe itself in 2009, so he resolved to return the next year and build an event which could accommodate similar work. The weekend-long festival had 40 entries in 2010; in 2014, more than 700. ‘This year’s highlights include the marvellous On Loop by Christine Hooper, featuring the voice of Scottish comedian Susan Calman,’
94 THE LIST FESTIVAL 31 Jul–7 Aug 2014
says Lynch, ‘and the immaculately presented Polish tribute to black-and-white New Wave film, The Cheater Day by Bartosz Warwas.’ He also picks out animation Marilyn Myller, voiced by Josie Long, and a 30th anniversary screening of Ghostbusters with live commentary by the cast of Superfan musical Who Ya Gonna Call?. ‘This year sees us move into a “proper” festival format with five or six screenings a day,’ he says. ‘We’ve also worked with architectural art duo Lamina to create a one-of-a-kind cardboard screen surround, featuring many concertina folds to create possibly the world’s first literally “pop-up” cinema.’ (David Pollock)
Sweet Grassmarket, 243 3596, 31 Jul–3 Aug, from 3pm, £16.50–£18.50 (£15–£17).