AROUND TOWN list.co.uk/aroundtown
HITLIST THE BEST FESTS & SPORT EVENTS
✽ International Tartan Festival Check out all the famous textiles Scotland has to offer – tartan, tweed, wool – at this international tartan fashion fest. Along with the catwalk show, there’s a chance to check out exhibitions, trade stalls and workshops. Thistle Hotel, Glasgow, Sat 12 & Sun 13 Jul.
✽ Glasgow Wee Doors Open Day Part of Festival 2014, this is the
perfect excuse to peek behind doors normally firmly shut to the public. There are 18 buildings opening up, many of which explore the city’s links to the Commonwealth. Various venues, Glasgow, Wed 23 Jul.
✽ The Commonwealth Games One of the largest sporting events ever to
be held in Scotland, plus a packed cultural programme alongside. See feature, page 13. Various venues, Glasgow, Wed 23 Jul–Sun 3 Aug.
✽ Merchant City Festival See preview, left. Various venues, Glasgow,
Thu 24 Jul–Sun 3 Aug.
✽ Scotland’s National Airshow Loops, rolls and precision flying
from the Red Arrows as the headline act at Scotland’s National Airshow. Also keep your eyes open for the Breightling Wingwalkers defying gravity and common sense on vintage biplanes, as well as the RAF’s incredible supersonic Typhoon. See preview, page 57. National Museum of Flight, East Fortune, near Edinburgh, Sat 26 Jul.
✽ Vintage Glasgow Everything your little retro heart desires, as Vintage
Glasgow presents an array of music, fashion, film, design and dance events to take you back to the good old days. See preview, page 35. Various venues, Glasgow, Sat 26 & Sun 27 Jul.
MERCHANT CITY FESTIVAL Games link means even more of a good thing
A n established fixture of Glasgow’s summer, the Merchant City Festival will expand dramatically this year thanks to its official association with the Commonwealth Games. It will be one of four Live Zones across the city and, for one year only, it will be boosted to 11 days from four. Its usual combination of arts, food and fashion will be pitched to capture the attention of as many of the city’s new visitors as possible.
‘In a way, we’re just building on what the festival has always done,’ says the event’s producer Lorenzo Mele, ‘which is to make the centre of Glasgow feel as international as possible.’
He points to the Brunswick Hotel’s music stage and to a range of continental-themed food markets, as well as a greater focus than ever on dance this year. Merchant Square will again be hosting Get Scotland Dancing and
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there will be much more street dance than usual.
‘Partly these [dance events] will reflect on the physicality of the Games themselves,’ says Mele, ‘so they’re more physical dance performances, almost acro-dance. We also have a local company running a dance treasure hunt.’ Also under the wing of Merchant City Festival this year will be the Surge street theatre festival (see preview, page 108), which brings physical theatre, comedy and interactive shows together, and Wayne and Geraldine Hemingway’s weekend-long retro feast, the Vintage Festival (see page 35), featuring a ‘soul casino’ and a Bratislavan swing band. (David Pollock)
Various venues, Glasgow, Thu 24 Jul–Sun 3 Aug