With June supposedly one of the warmest on record, optimists will be assuming July and August will continue the trend. So as Scotland continues to unlock, here’s a range of outdoor events – festivals, performances, nature trails, concerts and tours – to enjoy while the sun shines and the Covid-19 restrictions stay on the loose side. As ever, events may be subject to re-scheduling or cancellation.
Signal-On-Sea
Irvine Beach, Irvine
Part of Scotland’s ongoing Year Of Coasts And Waters festival, this exciting project is a collaboration between Glasgow arts and theatre organisation Cryptic and Dutch sound installation whizz-kids Jeroen Strijbos and Rob Van Rijskijk. Free to enjoy and opening to the public on July 16, it uses 24 ‘long-throw’ speakers to create an immersive soundscape on the beach overlooking the Isle of Arran and featuring operatic female voices. An accompanying project, in collaboration with the Harbour Arts Centre, is Nearer Future, an immersive indoor sonic light sculpture by artist Heather Lander and ambient musician Robert Bentall.
July 16-25 (12 noon-10.30pm, admission free)
Baroque Masters
Scottish Opera Production Studio car park, 40 Edington Street, Glasgow
Last year Scottish Opera successfully staged outdoor performances in the car park of their production studio. Extending the idea, they’ve launched Live At No. 40, a month-long mini-festival of live events. Here, the Scottish Opera orchestra performs a feast of baroque music with a selection from the work of Henry Purcell (his Chaconny in G minor), Vivaldi (Spring and Summer from The Four Seasons), JS Bach (his Brandenburg Concerto No 2) and Puccini (his Crisantemi, or Chrysanthemums). Eagle-eyed music fans among you will recognise Puccini’s sombre work as a 20th century interloper and the chrysanthemum as the symbol of death. The piece is there, say the organisers, as “a moment of reflection in the midst of all the fireworks.”
July 16, 1pm (£10-£18)
www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/orchestra-of-scottish-opera-baroque-masters/
Fringe By The Sea
Various venues, North Berwick, East Lothian
Offering music, comedy, literature and conversation, and with an emphasis on family and community events, North Berwick’s Fringe By The Sea festival kicks off next month with an all-standing event in a big top – a DJ set by 1990s dance maestros Basement Jaxx – and runs until August 15. Other highlights include Lulu, Janey Godley, Eddi Reader, Sir Vince Cable (don’t worry, he won’t be singing), poet Lemn Sissay, comedian Reginald D Hunter and Irvine Welsh. It’ll be interesting to hear what the Trainspotting author has to say about Scotland’s poshest seaside town. Among the many outdoor venues being used – the festival motto is ‘Open Arms, Open Spaces, Open Minds’ – are the picturesque harbourside and the Lodge grounds, where you’ll find a Garden Bar and something called an Envirozone.
August 5-15 (times and ticket prices vary)
TRNSMT
Glasgow Green, Glasgow
The Green is the place to go for that much-needed live music fix – and for a great many people, live performance has been a serious and troubling absence in their lives over the past year or so. Across three days and three stages the city and its music fans welcome a cornucopia of delights, from headliners Liam Gallagher, Primal Scream, Ian Brown and Courteeners to rising stars such as Holly Humberstone, Sports Team (who win the prize for sartorial splendour) and local boy Joesef. Other acts you would be mad to miss include Little Simz (headlining the King Tut’s stage on the Friday night), The Ninth Wave (another Glasgow act) and – one for fans of rabble-rousing Irish band Fontaines D.C. – The Murder Capital, who also hail from Dublin.
September 10-12 (£62.50-£275)
The World Of Peter Rabbit Nature Trail
Floors Castle, near Kelso
A specially-curated nature trail for families on the theme of Beatrix Potter’s famous leporine creation, who celebrates his 120th birthday next year. Children can use an activity pack and a map to dip into the world of Peter and friends Jemima Puddle-Duck, Squirrel Nutkin and Mrs Tiggy-Winkle – and if they’re lucky they may also catch a glimpse of the Duke of Roxburghe, who still lives in Floors Castle on the Roxburghe Estate. There’s also a Creative Art Station and the activity pack includes takeaway-tips such as baking recipes and how to build a hedgehog habitat. Hand sanitiser is available throughout the trail.
Daily until August 31 (£7 per adult, with two children per adult admitted free. Price includes admission to Floors Castle)
Bard In The Botanics
Glasgow Botanic Gardens, Great Western Road, Glasgow
Presented under the auspices of the Citizens Theatre, Bard In The Botanics returns for its 20th season of open air Shakespearean performances with a brace of plays to see us through the warm (ha!) summer months. First up is a production of Twelfth Night, a romantic comedy turning on shipwrecked twins who each thinks the other dead – twins who are identical except for the fact that one of them (Viola) is female and other one (Sebastian) is not. Viola disguises herself as a man called Cesario but then falls in love with Count Orsino – awkward! – while Orsino’s paramour Olivia falls in love with Cesario. Twelfth Night runs until July 31. Also on the bill later in the summer is A Winter’s Tale, which runs throughout August. Let’s hope the weather isn’t breaking by then.
Until August 28 (times and prices vary)
Doonhame Festival
The Crichton, Bankend Road, Dumfries
Set in 85 acres of parkland on the outskirts of Dumfries, the Doonhame Festival returns with a line-up headlined by Kaiser Chiefs. Also on the bill are Sussex rockers The Feeling, 1980s ska legends Bad Manners, Toploader (remember them?) and Tiree folk band Skerryvore, whose new album Together Again is out now. There are four stages, a food village, a bar of course and a camping area for those who fancy spending the weekend under canvas. If that doesn’t do the trick there’s a Holiday Inn within the festival grounds. On Sunday August 1, the day after it finishes, there’s also Doonhame Kids, which aims to give kids the full-on festival experience and features tribute acts.
July 30-31 (tickets start at £10 and go up to £210 for a family ticket of two adults and two children under 12)
The Encampment Of Eternal Hope
Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
Created by public art specialists Walker and Bromwich – aka Glasgow-based pair Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich – this outdoor space has been created on the Garden’s Oak Lawn and features colourful inflatable sculptures. It’s intended as a place where people can “look, draw, make, perform, talk, think and take action”, though nobody’s going to mind too much if you just hang about eating an ice cream or sucking on a Pan Drop.
July 10-11 (10.30 until 4.30pm. Admission free, but timed entry booking to the Garden is required)
European Stone Stacking Championships
Dunbar Beach, Dunbar, East Lothian
Yup, you read that right. Rounding off the Edinburgh Science Festival is the fourth annual stone stacking championships in which competitors have to … well, see if you can work it out. Actually it’s harder than you would think, with all manner of arches and gravity-defying sculptural towers being created by the participants. Moreover the coastal setting is a so-called ‘blue space’, which science has shown is good for our mental well-being. So whether you call it ‘transient land art’ or just a fun way to fill a couple of hours, check it out. Oh, and it’s free.
July 10-11 (12pm-4pm)
www.sciencefestival.co.uk/event-details/european-stone-stacking-championships
Wind In The Willows
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Port-Na-Craig Road, Pitlochry
Adapted for the stage by Mark Powell and co-directed by Elizabeth Newman and Ben Occhipinti, Kenneth Grahame’s much-loved children’s classic is being performed in an appropriately riparian setting – a spectacular outdoor amphitheatre on the banks of the River Tummel, near to Pitlochry Festival Theatre itself. A time-honoured tale of friendship, courage and loyalty, it stars Still Game’s Jane McCarry as Badger, Alicia McKenzie as Mole, Ali Watt as Ratty and Taggart star Colin McCredie as Mr Toad. Definitely one of the highlights of the summer theatre season, and the theatre is offering ‘no-hassle’ refunds for any reason – including the weather!
Until September 12 (times and prices vary)
www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com
Niqabi Ninja
The Lyceum Theatre, Grindlay Street, Edinburgh
An incredibly ambitious and pertinent project about walking and safety in public spaces, this event takes place simultaneously in five locations across Scotland – as well as Edinburgh, the ‘host’ city, there are ‘performances’ in four other cities under the auspices of venues in Aberdeen (His Majesty’s), Dundee (Dundee Rep), Inverness (Eden Court) and Glasgow (Tramway). Created by Glasgow-based, Egyptian-born playwright Sara Shaarawi, it was written as a response to mass sexual assaults on women in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. An indictment of male violence and rape culture, it will see audiences move around their respective cities in small groups or in pairs while a combination of street artwork, audio performance and a specially-composed soundtrack tell a graphic novel-style revenge story featuring the ninja of the title. If you’ve seen Ana Lily Amirpour’s cult 2014 film A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, imagine that but without the skateboarding vampire.
August 12-29 (start times vary, prices start at ‘pay what you can’ and rise to £20)
https://lyceum.org.uk/whats-on/production/niqabi-ninja-by-sara-shaarawi
Field: Something For The Future Now
Holyrood Park, Edinburgh
Billing itself as a “durational outdoor dance-happening conceived in a physically distanced world”, this free festival show brings together numerous Edinburgh-based performers for what promises to be a pretty jaw-dropping event. With a backdrop of Arthur’s Seat, you’d certainly have to go some distance to find a more sumptuous location. It’s scheduled to last around four hours and will see the performers respond to the landscape and the setting using movement and a series of live scores. The four-strong creative team of Christine Devaney, Karen Tennent, Skye Reynolds and Greg Sinclair have backgrounds in dance, music, multi-artform performance and theatre design. Expect the unexpected.
August 22 (1pm) and August 29 (4pm). The event is free and un-ticketed
www.eif.co.uk/events/field-something-for-the-future-now
The Tsar Has His Photograph Taken
Scottish Opera Production Studio car park, 40 Edington Street, Glasgow
Another in Scottish Opera’s Live At No. 40 mini-season of outdoor performances, this one features the members of the Scottish Opera Young Company, formed to give young opera singers much-needed experience. Thanks to the pandemic it’ll be over two years without a performance for them by the time they take to the Edington car park stage, a time in which they have had to meet up and rehearse via Zoom – so what better offering than Kurt Weill’s absurdist, 1928 one act hymn to the power of the camera?
July 31-August 1 (tickets from £10)
www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/the-tsar-has-his-photograph-taken/
A Puzzle In The Garden
Dawyck Botanic Garden, Stobo
A free, self-guided art trail for children and families, the puzzle requires participants to find 24 different puzzle pieces which have been cunningly hidden around the Garden which, if you’ve never been, is an absolute gem in its own right. Each piece employs illusion and camouflage to stay as hidden as possible but – spoiler alert! – a lot of them can be found hanging from trees.
Daily until November 30 (10am-4pm)
www.rbge.org.uk/whats-on/a-puzzle-in-the-garden/49338
The Tempest
Newhailes House and Gardens, Musselburgh
Located just outside Musselburgh, this wonderful 17th century Palladian-style country house stands in 80 acres of land and is now in the hands of the National Trust for Scotland (NTS). For one night only, Folksy Theatre stage an outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s The Tempest complete with live music. Audience members are invited to bring a chair or a rug – and a picnic of course – though no dogs are permitted. The show will go on whatever the weather, though if it’s blowing a hoolie it will be (a) entirely appropriate for a Scottish summer and (b) not entirely inappropriate given the title of the play being performed.
July 17 (7pm. Tickets from £12 for a child to £48 for a family of two adults and two children)
www.nts.org.uk/visit/events/the-tempest
Film Fest On The Forth 2021
Port Edgar Marina, Shore Road, South Queensferry
Running over a weekend at the end of July, this two day festival of communal, open-air film screenings makes use of a spectacular location on the banks of the Forth estuary and promises something for all cinematic tastes. Even better, tickets are free. Held under the auspices of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the screenings are staged on an outdoor area which can hold up to 260 people and there will also be a wealth of food and drink available from a range of vendors. And what about the films, you ask? Take your pick from Titanic, Whale Rider, Brave, The Illusionist, Moana, Whisky Galore (the original) and Jaws. As you’ve probably realised, most have either a Scottish or a nautical theme.
July 31-August 1 (screening times vary)
Hospitalfield Walled Garden Tours
Hospitalfield House, Arbroath, Angus
Now a centre for contemporary arts nestled in the Angus countryside, the site on which Hospitalfield stands has been a garden of some sort for over 800 years. The latest iteration is garden designer Nigel Dunnett’s redesign of the centre’s double Walled Garden, which opened to visitors at the end of May. It also encompasses the Fernery, a grotto-like building dating from 1872 which has been restored by London-based architects Caruso St John – they’ve added an oh-so- cool glass roof – and now contains a large fern collection donated by the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. Tours are free and take place at 2pm every Friday and Saturday.
Until July 25
The Comedy Of Errors
Scottish Opera Production Studio car park, 40 Edington Street, Glasgow
Dominic Hill, artistic director of the Citizens Theatre, directs this production of Shakespeare’s famous comedy, another tale of mistaken identity. Featuring live music, a seven-strong cast – including actress and Deacon Blue singer Lorraine Mcintosh – the stripped down show has a running time of 90 minutes and is presented as part of Scottish Opera’s Live At No. 40 mini-season of outdoor events. “We can’t wait to get back on stage and come together again as a community to enjoy a fun Shakespeare comedy in an atmospheric outdoor setting,” says Hill. “It will be a joyous moment of reunion.” It will indeed.
July 11-24 (7pm, with additional matinees on July 21 and July 24. Tickets start at £15)
Let’s Rock
Dalkeith Country Park, Dalkeith
The family-friendly retro rock festival returns with a line-up which includes 1960s legend Lulu and alongside 1980s pop acts such as Adam Ant, Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley, ABC, China Crisis Howard Jones and Nik Kershaw. Also on the bill is Heather Small, frontwoman with Mercury Music Prize-winners M People. There will be a wide variety of food on offer and anyone with a VIP tickets has access to the Club Tropicana enclosure and the ‘luxury loos’.
August 28 (tickets £30-£55, though children aged 3-12 are free when accompanied by an adult)
www.dalkeithcountrypark.co.uk/events/lets-rock-scotland-2/
Foodies Festival
Inverleith Park, Arboretum Place, Edinburgh
A live cooking demonstration from Masterchef 2021 winner Tom Rhodes and an appearance by Edinburgh-based Great British Bake Off 2020 winner Peter Sawkins are just two of the top attractions at this three-day culinary extravaganza. Visitors who can tear themselves away from the demonstrations can drop into the Shopping Village, where a range of artisan food-makers will be selling their wares, or check out the instant delights to be had in the Street Food Avenue. There’s also a feast (sorry) of live music, with more than 50 bands playing over the weekend, and last but not least there’s a chilli eating competition – not a sport you’ll find in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics but one which participants take every bit as seriously.
August 6-8 (11am-8pm. Ticket prices vary)
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