Festival
AROUND TOWN For more info go to LIST.CO.UK /FESTIVAL
HITLIST THE BEST WORKSHOPS, TALKS &WALKS
✽ Museum After Hours Experience the museum at night (with a bar, music
and performers to boot) and get a chance to explore the new Ming: The Golden Empire exhibition, sans kids. National Museum of Scotland, 0300 123 6789, 8, 15 & 22 Aug, 7.30pm, £16 (£14).
✽ Anthropomorphic Mouse Taxidermy Workshop We’ve all got varied interests,
right? Now you can satisfy your urge to transform a dead mouse into an amusing conversation piece. You’ll learn everything from skinning to mounting and positioning the wee beastie (all mice ethically sourced). Hendrick’s Carnival of Knowledge, 226 0000, 10 Aug, 2pm, £60.
✽ Bark An intimate space, highlighted by Garth Knight’s rope sculptures, is the
backdrop to the Bark festival programme. As well as a host of unique live performances each night, there are also installations and workshops. Woodland Creatures, 226 0000, until 24 Aug (not 11, 18), 8pm, free.
✽ Culture & Conflict A series of talks and lectures, hosted as part of Edinburgh
International Festival, exploring the effect of WWI on the 21st century. Including a discussion of pacifism, the social and political situation in Australia prior to the war, and anti- war activities in Scotland. The Hub, 9–28 Aug (not 15–17, 23–25), times vary, £6.
✽ Memory Lane Locals are your guides on this self-paced wander around Leith.
Pick up an audio track and walk route, then get strolling to the soundtrack of Kris Drever and Amble Skuse, before exploring Kate MacKay’s installations along the way. Living Memory Association, rememberedimagined.org, until 31 Aug, free.
HENDRICK’S CARNIVAL OF KNOWLEDGE The ‘travelling parlour of enlightenment’ returns for a second year A s excruciating as an artistic event tied to look at the love life of Ernest Hemingway – carrying on the gin theme, no doubt.
a consumer product can be, Hendrick’s Carnival of Knowledge (brought to us by the gin, of course) proved at last year’s festival that there’s a time and a place for such things. Brand ambassador and Edinburgh native Duncan McRae takes up the story. ‘It’s a decadent travelling parlour of enlightenment that travels the nation, and soon the world, celebrating unusual knowledge in a fun but quite grown-up environment,’ he says.
Delivering what McRae says is ‘mind- altering content’ in a converted townhouse on Royal Circus, the carnival involves talks, workshops and other assorted conversational cues, all within reach of a well-stocked bar. Events include a spoken-word cabaret, a Mark Grist and Tim Clare poetry slam, and a 102 THE LIST FESTIVAL 7–14 Aug 2014
‘A whole day of events has been themed around the notorious Scottish serial killers Burke and Hare,’ says McRae, ‘with everything from a mouse taxidermy workshop to a look at death art, and another day has been curated by Edinburgh-based publishers Canongate, including a workshop on creating your own comic. I’m also really looking forward to the work by Guerrilla Science. Their day will look at the brain and all the marvellous things it can do, including a talk on how we perceive scent, which I think is fascinating.’ (David Pollock) Hendrick’s Carnival of Knowledge, 226 000, 7–10 Aug, times and prices vary.