Days Out, Previews

Glasgow grins and bares it

29 Nov 2007

Celebrate your cellulite this Christmas! Professional ego-booster Gok Wan is in town for the live How To Look Good Naked roadshow. Two audience members will get the full-on nudie glow, and a host of hairstylists and make-up artists will be doling out…

Behind the scenes at Scottish Ballet

6 Sep 2007

As Scottish Ballet gears up for a move to its new permanent home in Tramway, the company is throwing open the doors and inviting the public in to see exactly what they do when not putting on performances. As well as demonstrating how they intend to…

O2 Undiscovered

8 May 2008

Tell ya, kid. These days, everybody wants to get into showbiz. O2 Undiscovered, which lands in Glasgow this fortnight, is the latest in a fast-growing succession of hands-on networking events offering the public a chance to meet and get advice from…

Mary King’s Ghost Fest

8 May 2008

Back once again with the paranormal behaviour! The annual scary celebration of ghouls, ghosts, things that go bump in the night and (even more terrifyingly) perma-tanned television psychics, resurfaces through the ectoplasm. Night vigils in Edinburgh’s…

Women in Afghanistan

8 May 2008

This is Malalai Joya, often called ‘the bravest woman in Afghanistan’. Not yet 30, Joya has not only stood and been elected to the new Afghani parliament, but has stood up against corruption within that establishment. She’s currently suspended from her…

Edinburgh Moonwalk

26 Feb 2007

Anyone out for a quiet stroll across the Meadows in Edinburgh might be in for a surprise, as 8000 women (and a few men) from all over Scotland descend on them, wearing decorated bras and pink baseball caps. This is the Edinburgh MoonWalk - not a genteel…

Boys-only cocktail classes

27 Mar 2008

‘If you want an interesting party sometime,’ the American novelist Robert Fulghum quipped, ‘combine cocktails and a fresh box of crayons for everyone.’ Today I’m doing the next best thing: I’m joining a cocktail class aimed at getting men back into the…

Scotland’s craft community

13 Mar 2008

Click, click, click. For the past few years, the needles of crafters up and down the country have been spinning a revolution. A very quiet, civilised revolution, granted. Productive. With minimal bloodshed, and lovely accessories. Okay, that might be…

Leonard Cohen

28 Feb 2008

There’s no particular reason why Glasgow poetry promoters Vital Synz are holding a Leonard Cohen Supper this fortnight. It’s not the great songwriter’s birthday, and he’s still, as far as we know, in rude health. He is being inducted into the Rock…

Big in Falkirk

Callendar Park, Falkirk, Sat 5-Sun 6 May. Free.

23 Apr 2007

‘Nine or ten years ago, if I’d said to you “come and see a show in Falkirk” you’d have laughed at me.’ Neil Butler, Artistic Director of the Big in Falkirk festival, which has been running in Callander Park since 2001, is quite used to this particular…

The Budungo Trail

24 Apr 2008

In Edinburgh a group of extrovert housemates have just moved into a new high tech environment where they will be under almost constant supervision by the public. For the next few weeks experts predict squabbles, group bonding and excessive personal…

Clemens en August

10 Apr 2008

The thing about fashion is it’s just too readily available these days. When everybody’s wearing the same labels, how can you really be sure you’re setting yourself apart from the crowd, eh? Answer: by buying from a label that only sells for three days a…

An Audience With . . .Nick Nairn

6 Sep 2007

Up until now, the most terrifying moment in Nick Nairn’s career was during the height of the recent foot and mouth crisis, when he interviewed the First Minister live on the BBC programme Landward. However, Nairn likes to push himself, and so to kick…

Karine Polwart on Thank You For the Music

6 Sep 2007

When choosing eight Scottish songwriters to profile, the BBC Radio Scotland series Thank You For the Music wisely eschewed yer flashier, more tabloid-friendly Tunstalls and Fratellis, focussing instead on low-profile, home-grown indie and folk heroes…

Make Your Own Kind of Music

29 Jan 2007

Last year, the Your Sound networking event (aimed at local unsigned bands who want to get in touch with the media and music industry) produced we are the PHYSICS (pictured) and The Dykeenies. It’s quickly become an essential date in the industry…

Queer Mutiny

17 Jan 2008

ALTERNATIVE GAY NIGHT Forest Café, Edinburgh, Fri 18 Jan The dark nooks and free’n’easy hedonism of gay venues such as the Polo Lounge and CC Blooms aren’t for everyone. Queer Mutiny and Queeruption groups are springing up across the world. Their…

Latin lessons

10 Oct 2006

A collision of Hispanic hoedowns hits Glasgow this fortnight, with the Centro Español Lorca’s annual celebration of Spanish culture, La Feria Latina, following Dance House’s Argentinian Tango in the City festival. The former is an open day of music…

A+E Quiz

13 Mar 2008

Hello, sensitive cultural types. Quite like wielding your massive brain for an audience, but feel that there’s just too much of that baffling sporty stuff in your average pub quiz? Well, the Arts and Entertainment Quiz may well be the event for you. The…

All glimmers in limbo: Tramway

14 Feb 2008

Glasgow’s Tramway has a rich, varied history that closely mirrors the city’s development from a noisy industrial town to a centre of arts and culture. The building began life as a tram terminus (the clue’s in the name), housed the Museum of Transport…

Burke and Hare-themed events

4 Jan 2008

‘Up the close and down the stair/But and ben wi’ Burke and Hare/Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief/Knox the boy who buys the beef . . .’ Everyone gets a bit rueful round about this time of year, don’t they? A lot of poring over old mistakes, a…

St Andrew’s Day

29 Nov 2007

Around this time of year, a flurry of twee tartan tat begins to take over our streets and schools. Gym halls fill up with tinny, taped ceilidh tunes, canteens are plagued with watery tatties and sloppy neeps, and supermarkets surrender to dusty displays…

Winterfest Glasgow

29 Nov 2007

2007 is the first year that Glasgow has consolidated all of its wintry activities under one festive umbrella, the secularly-named Winterfest Glasgow. The main action happens at either end of Queen Street, with Glasgow on Ice (pictured) taking over the…

Scottish Opera Unwrapped

15 Nov 2007

Go behind the scenes of Scottish Opera’s latest productions, The Barber of Seville and Seraglio, with all-new evening sessions designed to ease even the staunchest aria-phobe into an appreciation of all things operatic. Talk to the performers, meet the…

Beltane Fire Festival

Eternal flame

9 Apr 2007

(Photo: © Two Truths) In 1988, a small group of enthusiasts, led by Angus Farquhar of industrial rockers Test Dept, approached the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University, for funding. They wanted to stage an outdoor performance…

Mission in Action Fashion Fundraiser

Mission In Action Fashion Show

9 Apr 2007

Fashion Fundraiser ‘Living in this country, we’ve just got no concept of how hard it is for people out there,’ says Annalese McDermott, director of Edinburgh modelling agency Stolen, and co-founder of the UK branch of Mission in Action. Mission in…