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Inspiring Edinburgh Blog...blogging about the 'inspiring capital'...


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  • Lace Up Your Brogues!, Ceilidh Culture is in Town, Thursday March 15 2012

    If you’ve lived in Scotland, and indeed Edinburgh, long enough, then you’ll surely have attended, or heard of, a Ceilidh. You may have heard rumours of multiple partners, a stripped willow tree, a gay Gordon and a dashing white sergeant if you’ve never been; and for those that have been, can you remember the steps? Well, now time has come to lace up your brogues, perhaps wrap your kilt on and to get red in the face swinging your partners round the room as the annual Ceilidh Culture arts festival welcomes the spring with its 4 week extravaganza starting this Friday 16th March.

    Edinburgh Folk Club

    Image courtesy of Edinburgh Folk Club

    In celebrating 10 years of traditional Celtic arts with many Edinburgh venues and organisations getting involved, prepare yourself for a soiree of the senses with music, storytelling, song, and dance. Kicking off the event at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, is an Irish celebration, with a storyteller's reading accompanied by acclaimed piper Hamish Moore. Following this, Whisky Kiss will be hosting a Highland/break dancing competition at Voodoo Rooms with a club night on offer from 11pm. Over the course of the opening weekend there will be a chance to learn and witness signed storytelling, a practice and teaching session for budding flute players and a cosy wee sing song with Flossie Malavaille at the Royal Oak.

    Ceilidh Culture Festival Edinburgh

    Over the coming weeks Edinburgh venues will be hosting special nights and events for Ceilidh Culture with actual Ceilidh dancing nights at the Bongo Club, Ghilli Dhu and dance lessons at Dancebase. There will be lots of folk singing at the Royal Oak and the Edinburgh Folk Club. Also, large concerts will be held at the Usher Hall with Edinburgh based Kim Edgar playing and celebrating her second solo album launch on the 24th. Continuing on from last year’s success the street fair returns on Easter weekend (6-9 April) where you’ll find some of the best Scottish food and drink, clothes, crafts and more music.

    There really is so much going on it's best to get onto the Ceilidh Culture website and look through the event calendar to see what’s on and where, or download a handy guide to print and take with you. Now, just got to get out my whisky and try and recall how those dance moves go and with enough practice I might just end up singing as well!

  • Student Insider's Guide - Let's Get Lyrical - by Agnieszka Gryczkowska, Tuesday February 15 2011

    ‘Let’s get lyrical’

    ‘Hey Mr. Rain

    Ain't you follow me down’…

    Scotland's capital is ‘getting lyrical’.

    Auld Reekie is a city binded in books, from gothic novels through romantic poetry to fairy tales, and a city where they have not only been stored, but also created. Whereas Glasgow has proudly nested plenty beautifully singing birds which boldly have enhanced alternative British music scene. Now both those cities are getting together in a celebration of lyrics!

    Reading in Princes Street Gardens

    ‘Let’s get lyrical’ is the fifth citywide reading campaign delivered by The Edinburgh city of Literature Trust and proudly promoted by joint forces of Edinburgh city of Literature and Glasgow City of Music.

    The programme lists over 80 events including live music, workshops, song writing sessions, storytelling, poetry, debates and films. They will take places in various venues in Edinburgh such as libraries, museum, theatres, cinemas, bookshops, and, happily for those who become more imaginative over a pint, pubs. The full listing of events is available on the festival’s website.

    Song lyrics were picked as a theme simply because those angry, passionate, charming or ridiculous poems alongside with magical tunes carry a huge amount of emotions.If you feel like you have experienced an unforgettable dose of feelings caused by song lyrics, which resulted in either catharsis or an outrage, then you should write about it and share your story.

    If you don’t feel like scribbling anything down, then you can always enjoy the words written by some of Britain's finest writers, musicians and songwriters, including Lloyd Cole, Ian Rankin, Kenny Creosote, Barbara Dickson, Janice Galloway, and many more.

    For now, I shall enjoy The Velvet Underground’s ‘Hey Mr.Rain’ and try not to look outside.

    Agnieszka Gryczkowska, Edinburgh Napier University

  • Student Insider's Guide - Student Hogmanay - by Matthew Macaulay, Friday January 21 2011

    One of Edinburgh’s chief attractions, and something I had yet to experience until this week, is Hogmanay, a Scottish festival celebrating the New Year.  Edinburgh is transformed as tens of thousands of people descend upon its streets, braving the city’s less than tropical climate, in order to see in the New Year in style. Music, fireworks, and of course a ‘wee dram’ of alcohol make for an unforgettable night - well, providing that is, you stick to just a ‘wee dram’! I recommend bringing a hip flask of something to warm the cockles.

    Eating Beans from Tin

    In order to get the full Edinburgh Hogmanay experience, it is best to buy tickets to The Street Party as my flatmates and I did.  A ticket costs £15 and grants you admission to Princes Street and the surrounding area, as well as access to the entertainment laid on for the occasion. There are various temporary stages erected with bands playing.

    This year saw artists as disparate as Newton Faulkner and Michelle McManus (winner of 2003’s Pop Idol). For the majority of the night we stayed on the top of The Mound (a hill that overlooks Princes Street).

    My flatmates were keen to see Michelle and it may have been the booze or the fantastic atmosphere, but my deep rooted cynicism towards talent shows evaporated. I thoroughly enjoyed her performance and somehow succeeded in dancing on a cobbled slope! 

    Seeing the fireworks over the gothic shadow of the New College building allowed me to reflect on how lucky I am to study in such a beautiful place.

    Matthew Macaulay, University of Edinburgh

  • This Is My Edinburgh. And Yours, Yours and Yours. Ooh and You Too., Monday June 28 2010

    If you’re thinking we’ve been a bit quieter than usual, well you’re probably not wrong. TIME LogoWhy? You might ask. Well, it’s simple really; we’ve been busy playing with our new, more exciting friends. Aw, don’t look sad – we’re just kidding. We’ve actually just been super busy putting the finishing touches to our spanking new website, part of our summer campaign, This Is My Edinburgh. It’s the place to find out what’s happening in and around Edinburgh over the summer months.

    We’ve even got our own blog over there, so for the next few months, you’ll be able to do lookings at some shiny new blog ideas, including guest posts from a variety of Edinburghers as well as our new talent-spotter feature where we’ll be meeting some of the trendiest peeps around town.

    Don’t worry, we’ll still come back here and keep you informed of various Edinburgh things though, but you’re more than welcome to join in the fun over there too.

  • Leith Festival Underway. Non-Leithers Welcome, Sunday June 13 2010

    The citizens of the People’s Republic of Leith are extra lucky – not only do they get to share in all of theLeith Festival wonderful festivals that happen uptown, they also get their very own festival, which kicked off at the weekend.

    With 150 events in 50 different venues within a 1 mile radius, The Leith Festival, which runs until June 20th, features everything from comedy to sport, with theatre, music, film and a whole lot more thrown in.

    Highlights include a screening of the film Wedding Belles, written by one of Leith’s favourite sons, Irvine Welsh, a HipHop showcase presented by Pedro Solenoid and the intriguing period history theatre show The Siege of Leith.

    Don’t worry though – those lovely Leithers don’t keep all the goodness to themselves - they’re happy for the rest of us to venture down, so make sure you do just that.

  • It's Festival Time!, Saturday June 12 2010

    Dizzee RascalWoohoo! Can you smell that? Oh yeah, that’s Eau De Festival. No, it’s not Britney’s new fragrance, it’s actually the excitement generated by the launch of this year’s Fringe Festival, and it’s contemporary music strand, The Edge. Dizzee Rascal, Alan Cumming and Clark Peters, star of the joint-best TV show ever in the history of the universe ever, The Wire (tied with Eldorado, just in case you are wondering) are just some of the big-name acts who will be appearing at the 64th Fringe Festival.

    With almost 2,500 different shows to get through in just 25 days, you might struggle to see them all, so you’ll probably be looking for some tips on what to see eh? What’s that? Don’t look at us for cultural tips – we think Eldorado was fantastic. Oh, ok then.

    Our sources are telling us that two of the must see shows are some of the most hard-hitting dramas on the 2010 line-up; The Emma Thompson-produced Fair Trade about sex trafficking in Britain, and Unfinished Business, a one man play about the Lockerbie bombing. But you better get your skates on, because tickets won’t be available for long.

  • Shazam! Magic Festival Conjures Up Top Acts, Tuesday June 01 2010

    They say a magician never reveals their secrets, but sometimes, just sometimes, it’s ok to let something slip, especially if that something is the line-up to the first ever Edinburgh International Magic Festival.

    Organisers of the festival have pulled a rabbit out of the hat with the news that John Archer - the Magic Circle's Stage Magician of the Year - will be taking part in the inaugural festival, which runs from 7-11 July. TV Star R. Paul Wilson, from the hit BBC show The Real Hustle, will also be making a guest appearance.

    There will be a host of live performances featuring classic stage magic, close-up, comedy and mind-reading as part of the Festival programme too.

    As well as all the shows, there are special ‘magic’ screenings in conjunction with The Filmhouse, competitions, workshops and even a magic school for budding young wizards, although we can’t guarantee you’ll end up studying here, no matter how promising how you are.

  • 6000 Pipers For Edinburgh - Festival Launch Weekend, Thursday April 22 2010

    pipesWe don’t do things by half here in Edinburgh, which is why the official launch weekend of the festival season will be bigger and better then ever.

    The Festival Cavalcade will still kick things off this year on August 8th, but this year there will be an extra addition to the line-up.

    The day before the Cavalcade, on August 7th, around 6000 pipers take to the streets of the capital and head to Holyrood Park as part of the inaugural PipeFest. It’s part of a worldwide event which also takes place in New York, Ottawa, Hong Kong, Coffs Harbour, Lahore and Sydney, and funds raised will be donated to veterans and cancer charities.

    This year’s Festival Cavalcade, which will take place in Holyrood Park for the second year, also promises to deliver even more, with a whole day’s worth of activities in store.

    It’s expected that more than 100,000 spectators will turn up for the weekend’s festivities, so you’d better get there early if you want a good spot.

  • Get Yer Kilt On For Ceilidh Culture Kick Off, Wednesday March 24 2010

    Do you know your reels from your strathspeys and your Jimmy Shands from your Jackie Levens?

    piper

    If so, you’ll probably already be champing at the bit ahead of this year’s Ceilidh Culture. If you don’t have a clue what we’re talking about, well, you’ll soon have the chance to rectify that when the festival kicks off tomorrow (Friday 26th March).

    As we mentioned a wee while back, the celebration of traditional arts – including music, dance, poetry and storytelling – is a 24 day event showcasing some of the best in local and international talent. Edinburgh lass Mairi Campbell, whose version of Auld Lang Syne featured in the Sex and The City movie, is playing, as is Glasgow’s Caragh Nugent.

    It’s not just Scottish talent Ceilidh Culture at either, with performers from all around the world taking part. Indie-folk darling Laura Marling is just one of the headline names, and there’s plenty more too, including a host of Scandinavian folk and roots music, not to mention some rather cool Japanese drumming.

    And if you feel inspired by it all, you can try your hand at a variety of workshops as well. You can become a fan on Facebook, and click here for full line-up details.