Jonathan Trew: Stonehaven Folk Festival or Peter Andre and Steps?

Published on 09/07/2012 00:00

IN A lot of ways, July can be quiet for the arts in Scotland. Many companies and organisations are getting ready for August’s Edinburgh onslaught while the big music festival season sucks a lot of bands out of the usual gig circuit. However, as always, Scotland’s arts scene doesn’t want for unexpected treasures.

The T in the Park shindig at Balado will attract significantly more punters but will it feature an aqua ceilidh in an open-air swimming pool? Possibly not, but Balado’s loss is a gain for the Stonehaven Folk Festival, which takes place this weekend. Tonight’s folkateers include The Old Blind Dogs, Brian McNeill, Thalla and the NE Folk Collective playing the Town Hall. The aqua ceilidh takes place tomorrow morning with the Splashing White Sergeant billed as the perfect way to clear any cobwebs from the night before.

In a previous job at an arts listing magazine, there was always a drive to find female cover stars – the alternative often being yet another knitted brow, guitar-strangling bloke whose scowling visage suggested that a grimy village somewhere was missing its prize pig 
killer. Times have changed but there is still an argument to be made that women are under-represented in the arts. Helping redress the imbalance is Studio 58: Women Artists in Glasgow since World War II. Opening this weekend in the Mackintosh Museum, the exhibiton looks at the post-war scenes which have led to artists such as Christine Borland, Cathy Wilkes and Karla Black being nominated for the Turner Prize. The show’s title is taken from the studio located on the top floor of the Mackintosh Building which historically was the dedicated workspace for women students.

On a more light-hearted note, Steps and Peter Andre play Hamilton Racecourse tonight in a line-up which must have done much to deplete the West Coast’s prodigious supplies of spray tan. Having said that, the mahogany-toned Tom Jones played the same venue last night so the beauty salons of Lanarkshire may have already run dry.

• www.stonehavenfolkfestival.co.uk; www.gsa.ac.uk; www.hamilton-park.co.uk