SUMMER SUMMER FESTIVALS FESTIVALS
FEST OF FUN
From Tradfest to Tectonics and Butefest to Belladrum, we round-up a whole heap of festivals coming to a locale near you this summer
GLASGOW RESTAURANT FESTIVAL Debut festival celebrating Glasgow’s thriving dining scene. A resplendent Spiegeltent in Candleriggs Square hosts a different pop-up restaurant each day, with CAU, Bar Soba and Marco Pierre White all taking a turn. There’s also a week of specially- priced menus at over 60 Glasgow restaurants. Until Sun 24 Apr.
THAT’S FIFE! Formerly Fife Comedy Festival, its punny makeover heralds the third year of the Kingdom’s comedy extravaganza. It may be a young’un compared with its behemoth peers, but it has still managed to pull in big
names: Ed Byrne, Chris Ramsey, Nina Conti and Fred MacAulay will all be there. Various venues, Fife, until Sat 30 Apr.
ALCHEMY FILM AND MOVING IMAGE FESTIVAL One of the few festivals in the country dedicated to experimental i lm, this festival in the Scottish Borders is a gem. This year’s theme is ‘Altered State’ with highlights including White Ash (a journey into consciousness composed of thousands of images) and Silver (where a man from outer space tries to free his father from hospital). Hawick, Thu 14–Sun 17 Apr.
OUTSKIRTS Platform celebrates its 10th birthday this year, and its Outskirts festival returns with a mix of music, art and performance. Among this year’s highlights are music from Kathryn Joseph and the Twilight Sad’s James Graham, theatremakers Company of Wolves’ show A Brief History of Evil, and art from Marvin Gaye Chetwynd. Platform, Glasgow, Sat 23 Apr.
SOLAS ‘Beyond the Borders’ is the theme for this midsummer arts and music festival that encourages debate with activists and writers from across the cultural spectrum. The programme includes performance, spoken word, visual arts and i lm as well as a live music line-up that mixes folk, hip hop and electro, with appearances from Blue Code Rose, Stanley Odd, Carbs (pictured) and Bdy_Prts. Common Weal deliver workshops and talks centred around grassroots democracy and there’s spoken word from Hollie McNish, Kirstin Innes and Alan Bissett. • The Bield at Blackruthven, Perthshire, Fri 17–Sun 19 Jun
DUNDEAD
TRADFEST
FOLK FILM GATHERING TECTONICS
Dundee’s horror i lm festival – which takes place annually at the DCA – always has some great treats in store, whether you’re a gore-lover or fonder of jumpy moments. This year features a Wes Craven retrospective, plus a screening of the excellent new horror Green Room (see review, page 70). Dundee Contemporary Arts, Thu 28 Apr–Sun 1 May. 20 THE LIST 7 Apr–2 Jun 2016
Twelve days of Celtic arts featuring storytelling, folk music, crafts, dance and the great outdoors. There’s Gaelic music from Dàimh and Griogair Labhruidh, a family ceilidh, stories inspired by the folklore of Beltane and a Dawn Rising walk up Arthur’s Seat. Edinburgh, Wed 28 Apr–Sun 8 May.
Collective Transgressive North present their folk i lm festival for the second year, this time in partnership with Edinburgh’s Filmhouse and Tradfest. 2016’s programme focuses on animals. It opens with Drew Wright and Hamish Brown’s new score for Lost Treasure (pictured), which launched Glasgow Short Film Festival this year too. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Thu 28 Apr– Thu 12 May. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra presents this weekend of new music featuring the great pianist John Tilbury, world premieres from Laurence Crane and Richard Emsley, Wolf Eyes-founder Nate Young’s i rst work for orchestra and the inaugural Tectonics opera, Labyrinthine. See preview, page 91. City Halls, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Sat 7 & Sun 8 May.