Events guide: What’s on in Scotland this week

By RAY PHILP
Published on 30/07/2012 19:46

YOU’D be forgiven for thinking that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the only game in town this week, but there are plenty of other events vying for your attentions, including the Pittenweem Arts Festival and the Aberdeen International Youth Festival, plus music from the mercurial Chilly Gonzales and a genre-spanning evening of music in Stirling

Aberdeen International Youth Festival

1 - 11 Aug

Various venues, free

The 40th Aberdeen International Youth Festival has undergone a considerable revamp from its beginnings as a classical music gathering in 60s Switzerland. Despite the festival’s initially itinerant nature - the AIYF also took residence in London for a spell - and a programme that now incorporates theatre, dance and non-classical forms of music, the AIYF stated aim of bringing together young performers and artists from around the world has remained at the heart of its programming. A new show from writer Alan Bisset, Niki and the Gang, will be one of many highlights of a festival with an unusually intuitive approach to its programming.

Chilly Gonzales - Piano Talk Show

3 Aug, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh

£12, 9.30pm

Exhaustively talented singer/rapper-songwriter Chilly Gonzales, best known for producing albums for Peaches and Feist, holding the world record for the longest solo concert (27 hours, three minutes and 44 seconds) and generally being excellent at music, will be battering the ivories at the Queen’s Hall this Friday. The Canadian’s colourful repertoire, which also extends to acting and screenwriting (he co-wrote and starred in Ivory Tower in 2010, a film that coincided with a seventh album of the same name), seldom fails to impress - only the beigest of souls might think otherwise.

Pittenweem Arts Festival

Until 5 Aug

Various venues, free

Few places in Scotland could offer surroundings as apt for a visual arts festival as the small, porcelain-like fishing village of Pittenweem, but, owing to the festival’s rather low-key approach to self-promotion, it’s also clear that most of the rhapsodising is confined to the canvas. Around 30 artists reside in and around Pittenweem, and many of the works on display from local artists will invariably bear the village’s hallmarks. However, guest artists will bring their own influence on proceedings - the Association of Danish Printmaking Artists, sculptor Jake Harvey and polymath John Byrne are among those invited to headline the festival.

Edinburgh International Circus Festival

3 - 26 Aug, Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh

£7-24

A newcomer to the Fringe programme, the Edinburgh International Circus Festival is a show that invites the audience to “shape the future of circus entertainment”. A bold claim, sure, but then you’d suppose that displays of modesty hardly constitute big top entertainment. Acrobrats, illusionists and, yes, clowns will descend from all corners of the globe to compete for gold, silver and bronze thistles before a panel of judges; an audience award is also up for grabs, to be judged by a clapometer.

JailYardMusic presentsJelly Roll Soul

4 Aug, Old Town Jail, Stirling

£7, 7-11pm

Formerly a club night in Glasgow spanning more genres than you could shake a leg at, Jelly Roll Soul has relocated to Stirling, a city with a music scene enjoying something of a renaissance. Offering a pan-global blend of jazz, disco and afro-funk alongside more contemporary strands of electronic music, there’s every chance that you’ll find yourself dancing to everything from Kool and the Gang to Aphex Twin.