Festival
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HITLIST THE BEST EVENTS AROUND TOWN
Detours Let Josie Long and Aidan Moffat open your eyes and ears to the hidden pleasures of the Edinburgh Art Festival. See picture, right. Venues vary, 226 6558, 8 & 9 Aug, times vary, free.
(g)Host City Virtual Festival ‘Virtual festival’ showcasing hidden Edinburgh, with downloadable adventures from noted writers. See theatre, page 66. Ongoing, online only ghostcityfestival.com, £2. Young China Shines As part of an ongoing cultural exchange, catch four live shows from China’s talented young musicians, dancers and martial artists. Royal Mile Mercat Stage, 7–9 Aug, times vary.
World Press Photo Exhibition 2011 The World Press Photo Award highlights the best press photography from around the world. The best entries are collected here. Scottish Parliament, 348 5200, 6–27 Aug, times vary, free. Auld Reekie Roller Girls They’re our favourite ‘Burgh bruisers all year round, but the Auld Reekie Roller Girls have decided to put on a couple of Fringe spectaculars. See picture, page 88. arrg.co.uk Meadowbank Stadium, 226 0000, 6 Aug, 2pm, £5.
Edinburgh Interactive This interactive media festival has a free public programme with workshops, screenings, and the chance to try out not-yet-released games. Radisson Blu Hotel, edinburgh interactive.co.uk, 11 & 12 Aug, prices vary.
An Edinburgh Zine & Small Press Fair /Faceplant Performance troupe Zorras turns the Forest Café into a bookshop, rounded off with an evening of poetry and music. Forest Café, 220 4538, 7 Aug, noon- 5pm & 6–9pm, free.
Skeptics on the Fringe Busting myths and telling it like it is, the festival of scepticism continues with a varied programme this year. Various venues, 6–27 Aug, skepticsonthefringe.we bs.com, times and prices vary.
Events are listed by city, then type. Submit listings at least 14 days before publication to sport@list.co.uk for sport or aroundtown@list.co.uk for all other events. Listings compiled by Laura Ennor. ✽✽ Indicates Hitlist entry
Activities & Events ✽✽ (g)Host City Virtual Festival Ongoing throughout August. £2. Online only: ghostcityfestival.com. No venues, no tickets and no limitations, promises this festival-within-a-festival from Fringe First winner Laura Cameron Lewis. To be part of it, download one of the site-specific, virtual mp3 adventures created for the streets of Edinburgh by international artists from Momus to Alan Bissett and set off whenever you fancy. See Hitlist and theatre, page 66. Symposium: The Indirect Exchange of Uncertain Value – The Performance of Public Art Fri 5 Aug, 10am–6.30pm. £35 (£25). Fettes College, East Fettes Avenue, 332 2281. The Collective Gallery’s festival symposium features speakers such as Vito Acconci, Fiona Jardine, Elizabeth Price and Owen Hatherley, a performance by Chris Evans and poetry from the great Tom Leonard. The Edinburgh Military Tattoo Fri 5–Sat 27 Aug. Fri 5 Aug, 8.30pm, then Mon–Fri, 9pm, Sat, 7.30pm & 10.30pm. £25–£58. Castle Esplanade, Edinburgh Castle Royal Mile, 225 1188. Three weeks of glittering military entertainment. Alongside all the usual pomp, circumstance, lone piping and cheering, this year’s exciting exotic types
Detours
are the Dutch Mounted Bicycle Band (or, ahem, Fanfarekorps Koninklijke Landmacht Bereden Wapens) and the water-buffalo-horn-toting South African Navy Band. Truckfest Scotland Sat 6 & Sun 7 Aug, 9am–5.30pm. £12.50 in advance/£14 on the door (children £6/£7; family ticket £32/£35). Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, 01775 768661. Scotland’s largest truck festival with plenty of thunderous entertainment for all the family.
✽✽ FREE Faceplant Sun 7 Aug, 6–9pm. The Forest Café, 3 Bristo
Place, 220 4538. Multimedia performance troupe Zorras rounds off a day of bookish fun and frolics at the Forest with a some of the UK’s finest and most unusual poets and musicians. Performers include Alison Smith, Colin Herd, Fiona Soe Paing, Mark Mace Smith, Rachel McCrum and ShellSuit Massacre. See Hitlist.
✽✽ FREE Detours: Aidan Moffat Mon 8 Aug, 7pm. Inverleith House,
Royal Botanic Garden, Arboretum Place/Inverleith Row, 248 2971. Indulging in a wordy version of the collages on display in the current Robert Rauschenberg exhibition, former Arab Strap man and now solo artist Moffat, as much storyteller as musician, riffs on the themes of junk and the city. See Hitlist and picture, below. The Japanese Tea Ceremony Tue 9 Aug, 11am. By donation. St John’s Church, Princes Street, 221 2273. Mio Shapley, professional storyteller and qualified master of Urasenke or the Japanese tea ceremony, and Hiromi Moffat, shamisen player, invite you for a very special cuppa.
F E S T I V A L
The festival period blurs the lines between genre so much anyway that we’d like to tip our hat to Edinburgh Art Festival for bringing in an author, a comedian, a musician and a pair of theatre-makers to help to enliven the programme, by creating their own creative responses to some of the exhibitions. You can either hear them live or download the pieces for your own later gallery visit. Josie Long and Aidan Moffatt start off the Detours, responding to Ellie Harrison’s ‘A Brief History of Privatisation’ and the Robert Rauschenberg exhibition respectively – look out for author Ross Sutherland on John Byrne and performance team Shunt creating whispers around ‘500 Years of Scottish Portraiture’ in the coming weeks. See edinburghartfestival.com for full info. ■ Detours: Josie Long Tue 9 Aug, 2pm, Inspace; Detours: Aidan Moffat Mon 8 Aug, 7pm. Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, 226 6558, free. 4–11 Aug 2011 THE LIST 87