As Edinburgh's festival season edges closer, music, theatre, art and comedy programmes across the board are beginning to take shape. Let's take a look at the week's biggest programme announcements:

Edinburgh Art Festival 

The first of this week’s programme announcements came from EAF, who will be filling every corner of Edinburgh with art through their commissions and associate artists programmes as well as their partner exhibitions. 

To celebrate 200 years of Edinburgh’s Union Canal, The Wave of Translation is the title theme of this year’s commissions programme, which asks artists to reflect on technological, social and political change in the city over time. One particular responding exhibition is Nadia Myre’s Tell Me Of Your Boats and Your Waters - Where Do They Come From, Where Do They Go? in which the artist explores indigenous stories linked to canals that become intertwined with her own ancestry. And Pester and Rossi’s Finding Buoyancy takes inspiration from the Union Canal at Wester Hailes, where the surrounding community got involved in sharing their experiences of working, playing and living along the canal. 

Emmie McLuskey curated this year’s Associate Artist Programme, which follows the aforementioned theme by bringing together a series of new works by several artists due to be displayed in sites along the Union Canal. 

Platform: 2022 returns for its eighth iteration as the space for new and emerging artists to showcase their work, with names like Saoirse Amira Anis, Emelia Kerr and Lynsey MacKenzie making the bill at the French Institute for Scotland. 

Partner exhibitions include The Invisibles by El Salvadorian artist Jose Campos at Sierra Metro on Ferry Road; Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace, which brings together some of the finest paintings in the Royal Collection in celebration of The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year; installation artist Céline Condorelli’s After Work at the Talbot Rice Gallery;  National Treasure: The Scottish Modern Arts Association  featuring works by the Glasgow Boys, Scottish Colourists, Joan Eardley and John Duncan; and many more. 

A Keynote Lecture will be given by Dutch visual artist Jeanne van Heeswijk and an Endnote Lecture by Guianese-British sculpture Hew Locke, as well as a range of ‘artists in conversation’ events, tours, canal cruises and Art Late showcases taking place throughout the month. 

For more information on the full EAF programme visit edinburghartfestival.com

SHHE

Made In Scotland (Fringe) 

Made In Scotland, the Fringe’s local Scottish talent showcase, has launched its biggest programme to date taking place in range of Edinburgh venues as well as online. 

The theatre programme contains a number of world premiers, including the National Theatre of Scotland’s Exodus, a political satire following the power-hungry Home Secretary on her quest to winning the next election; Ode to Joy (How Gordon got to go to the nasty pig party) a Leith-set LGBTQ story of love and friendship set to a Berlin-inspired techno soundtrack; and Pain and I a multi-disciplinary meditation on chronic pain and what it can teach us, created and performed by Sarah Hopfinger. 

In the dance line-up, Charlotte McClean’s And, an autobiographical take on nationality, identity and culture, makes its world premier at Dance Base, as well as Sense of Centre by Jack Webb which sees him perform solo work exploring the idea of finding sanctuary in your own body in a modern world where loneliness and isolation are rife. 

Heading over to the music side of the programme, artist SHHE presents her show DÝRA, which reimagines the landscape of Iceland’s Westfjords in am immersive surround sound display; singer and harpist Esther Swift will perform the world premier of her show Sound Effects which features poems by Rachel McCrum and William Butler Yeats; and the Brian Molley Quartet collaborate with Indian percussionist Krishna Kishor in the world premier of their show Intercontinental. 

Discover more artists taking part in this year’s Made In Scotland showcase at madeinscotlandshowcase.com.

Ibibio Sound Machine

Fringe By The Sea

North Berwick’s cultural extravaganza has also added more to its line-up, now consisting of a wide array of events across music, literature, comedy and family entertainment. The music programme boasts names like Texas, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra playing the music of film composers John Williams, Ibibio Sound Machine, The Hacienda House Party and Happy Mondays. 

Leading the comedy programme is Frankie Boyle alongside Clive Anderson, Milton Jones, Angela Barnes and more, while the literary portion has expanded to showcase five author-led events. Names to see include Alexander McCall Smith, Val McDermis, Pat Nevin and Chitra Ramaswamy. Other speaking events will be held with adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, food writer Jay Rayner and ex-CIA agent turned entrepreneur Rupal Patel.

For the kids the festival will run model making workshops with Aardman, musical fun with Major Minor Music Club, a Silent Adventure Disco and a Comedy Club 4 Kids, amongst other exciting activities. 

Discover the full Fringe By The Sea programme at www.fringebythesea.com