Leith set to dazzle as monster gala kicks off festival

The ten-day festival gets into full swing tomorrow with the traditional Gala Day on Leith Links, with more than 400 people taking part in a monsters-themed pageant.

Before then, tonight's official launch will be an all-singing, all-dancing event at the New Kirkgate shopping centre, putting the spotlight on Leith youths, with dancers from groups including Young Leithers, Telford College, DanceBase, Mary Phelan School of Dance and Siamsoir Irish dancing group.

There will also be singers from Leith Acorn Centre YMCA, and performances from the Leith Community Theatre.

Highlights of the gala include around 20 trees on Leith Links which have been swathed in knitted panels as the culmination of the CoolWool project, a visit from the Scottish Lime Centre to give visitors the chance to try traditional stonecutting, and around 130 stalls.

The pageant sets off from Lochend Park at 12pm to follow the same route as last year to Leith Links, arriving at around 1.30pm.

Festival director Adele Conn said: "It's just got a really nice feeling this year. We've really tried to make it a bit more family-friendly, and I think the whole thing came from us trying to emphasise the 'youth strand' more.

"The festival seemed to be for people who are 20-plus so with getting younger people involved it just rubbed off, and on Gala Day too. We're using a lot more of the space than we've ever used before, we've got a lot more activity-based things coming along, and our pageant is well over 400 people, which is the biggest we've had in recent years."

The programme for the rest of the festival includes a total of 150 events, spanning film, music, theatre, comedy, walks and talks.

The Edinburgh Short Film Festival will take place at The Granary on Saturday and next Friday, with entries from around the world. Historical talks include a presentation about Leith pirates at Leith Community Centre on Tuesday from Jim Tweedie of the Leith History Society, while comedy appearances include Susan Morrison at The Constitution on Wednesday.

One of the week's highlights is expected to be the 10th anniversary Leith Festival Tattoo, which takes place on June 19 from 7.15pm at the piazza outside the Malmaison Hotel, and performed by the Leith Community Concert Band, led by Frederick Frayling-Kelly.

Leith Councillor Gordon Munro, who is a member of the festival organisation, said he was particularly looking forward to tonight's launch, which begins at 7pm: "I think it's great that the youth have taken over the Kirkgate to show how talented they are and how creative they are. Normally if you hear that youths have taken over a shopping centre it's in a negative way but this time it's a really positive thing.

"Given that they had less resources this year for various reasons, the festival has managed to pull off something quite special and that's been added to by the creativity of people within the Leith community. A lot of the stuff is free as well, and that makes it affordable, compared to other festivals in the city."