Neighbourhoods, Watch! - Leith Festival Vs West End Festival

Source: The List (Issue 658)
Date: 10 June 2010 (updated 15 June 2010)
Written by: Kirstin Innes

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This article is from 2010.

Neighbourhoods, Watch! - Leith Festival Vs West End Festival

In the East corner, Edinburgh’s Leith Festival! In the West corner, Glasgow’s West End Festival! Kirstin Innes adjudicates the battle of the community fests.

Stats
If we’re starting off with sizes, it’s probably worth pointing out that the West End Festival, which has been running for 15 years, technically covers a far bigger catchment area and is ten days longer than the Leith Festival, so has more room to pack in its whacking 430 events this year. That said, there has been a Leith Festival in some form or another since 1907, so each of its almost 100 events is steeped in history. Winner:West End Festival is the heavyweight here.

Local heroes represented
Leith, of course, has its very own Bard in the inflexible, slightly intimidating shape of Irvine Welsh. He’s not actually here in person this year, but there’s a great cinema strand based out of Sofi’s Bar paying tribute to his works: the fabulously foul Wedding Belles alongside, of course, Trainspotting. Over in the West, there’s Lobey Dosser Day: a day of events dedicated to cartoonist Bud Neill, meeting at the statue of his titular cartoon sheriff (on Woodlands Road opposite Uisge Beatha). Winner: The Ultimate Leither takes this round. We’re too scared to object.

Weird and wonderful Both festivals traditionally throw up a number of, ah, oddball events alongside yer more traditional gigs ‘n’ markets. This year, we’ll be rolling our eyes (but totally charmed) at the West End Festival’s Curses! Ancient Egyptian Magic in Half An Hour! workshop, the cooking class How To Become An Italian Mama (taught by a Welsh Frenchman...) and braving Brel’s gin tasting sessions. In Leith, we’ll be stocking up resources for the Strangers In A Strange Land ‘14 hour literary mash-up’ (no, us neither), before taking a Trainspotting tour around Renton and Begbie’s final haunts, then settling down for Whores and Sons, Susan Morrison’s storytelling session about the sleazier side of the Port. Winner: A brain-boggling draw.

Big names
Nah, you’re barking up the wrong tree here. Although there are a fair few high profile events on at both festivals, both programmes tend to be far more concerned with celebrating the talent that already exists in the community. So, sure, you can catch Eddi Reader at Oran Mor as part of the WEF, or Vladimir McTavish bringing the lulz at Cruz in Leith, but it’s sweeter because both of them are locals. Other good local names to catch: Rick Redbeard from the Phantom Band and sweet WEndy indiefolkers Maple Leaves, both at Brel, Zoey Van Goey and Endor at Oran Mor, and children’s author Maggi Gibson at Gilmorehill G12 (all WEF); Kim Edgar at Iso Bar, Chris Bradley from Aberfeldy’s solo project,
Winner: Listen. At the end of the day, the winners are the respective communities, amirite? Aaah …

Leith Festival, Fri 11–Sun 20 Jun, full listings www.leithfestival.com; West End Festival until Sun 27 Jun, full listings www.westendfestival.co.uk.

This article is from 2010.

More: Comedy, Days out, Film, Kids, LGBT, Theatre, Visual art, Life & style, Days out (Kids), Comedy (Film), Leith Festival, West End Festival