SUMMER FESTIVALS MER FESTIIVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAAAALSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSALSLS BOOK FESTIVALS
Borders Book Festival
Bloody Scotland
S E R U T C P R E T R W
I I
Where: Harmony Garden, Melrose, 14–17 June, bordersbookfestival.org Price: £9–£13 per event.
Line-up: Sir David Frost, Hilary Mantel, William Boyd, Alistair Darling, John Sessions
There have been a few eyebrows raised by this year’s Borders Book Festival programme, and suggestions that it’s not quite as bookish as it ought to be. Spangly as a Katie Price paperback (don’t worry, she’s not coming), the big names are mostly from the worlds of theatre, politics and media, with Rory Bremner interviewing several celebrities known more for their personalities than their prose. Still, serious bookworms have no cause to complain, with some of the fi nest novelists of the moment also poking their heads around the marquee fl ap. (Charlotte Runcie)
Where: Various venues in Stirling, 14–16 Sep, bloodyscotland.com
Price: £5–£9 per event. Line-up: Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Quintin Jardine, Stuart MacBride, Christopher Brookmyre
Given that crime is Scotland’s most popular literary genre (and, depending on where you’re from, weekend activity), it’s startling that this is the nation’s fi rst ever international festival of crime writing. Organisers and all-round crime fi ction mavens Alex Gray and Lin Anderson aren’t holding back; they’ve seemingly rounded up every Scottish author that ever sketched out a calculating psychopath or brandished a fi ctional shiv. Stirling gets its sleuth on as it puts up more than 40 writers over three days for author events, sessions on morality and forensics, and the inaugural Scottish Crime Book ody brilliant. (Charlotte Runcie) Awards. Bloody brilliant. (Charlotte Runcie) bri
Wigtown Book Festival
R E N M E R B S U G N A
Where: Various venues in Wigtown, 28 Sep–7 Oct, wigtownbookfestival.com
Price: £3.50–£32 per event. Line-up: Still under wraps; booking opens in August
It’s tricky to predict exactly what Wigtown’s scrappy cluster of bookshops will offer up for their annual festival, but the programme is always thoughtful and quirky. Small and proud, Wigtown was recently given a Creative Place Award by Creative Scotland for being an outstanding artsy community of under 2500 residents, a fi tting reward for a town with such a consistently purposeful attitude to showcasing contemporary literature. Loving books is Wigtown’s vocation and, with the injection of cash, it’s only on the up and up. (Charlotte Runcie)
O T H E R B O O K S E V E N T S Sc Scotland’s thriving offbeat offbeat literary scene should pl should please even the most bohemian of bibliophiles. Edinburgh Book Fringe (10–24 August) is an indie antidote to certain other August literary events in the city (for details of Edinburgh International Book Festival, see page 13) and later in the year Edinburgh Independent and Radical Book Fair (24–28 October) supports writing that’s often neglected by bigger bookshops. The Scottish International Storytelling Festival (19–28 October, Edinburgh), meanwhile, celebrates oral tradition and the ancient art of folktales. And if reading’s great but you fi nd it gets a bit, well, indoorsy, Books, Borders & Bikes (18 & 19 August) should blow some fresh air around your chapters.
PIPING LIVE! MON 6–SUN 12 AUG
GLASGOW
Toot and squeak along with workshops, masterclasses, ceilidhs and street
performances at Glasgow’s international piping festival as they go for the World’s
Biggest Pip-a-long.
BFEST FRI 10–SAT 11 AUG WICK, HIGHLANDS Take your jackets and
BEACONS
FRI 17–SUN 19 AUG SKIPTON, YORKSHIRE
THE GREEN MAN
FRI 17–SUN 19 AUG HAY-ON-WYE, WALES
The North’s major arts and Green Man is an independent
umbrellas as the UK mainland’s
northern-most music festival sees The Proclaimers walk
boutiques festival offers another stylish line-up in the Yorkshire Dales with
festival, meaning no corporate sponsors, no crap lager and a very exclusive
CREAMFIELDS FRI 24–SUN 26 AUG
DARESBURY, CHESHIRE The x-rated, over 18s only dance music festival of
Britain. Expect hard beats
and raves for the
about 500 miles to get to their headliners Wild Beasts and
headliner Van Morrison.
full weekend, not for the
venue with hip hop band La Fontaines headlining also.
Toots and the Maytals. light-hearted.
42 THE LIST 24 May–21 Jun 2012