AROUND TOWN

Following last year’s record-breaking numbers, Mardi Gla Glasgow’s Pride (Saturday 15 July) returns with a whole host of events that showcase the solidarity and awesomeness of Scotland’s LGBTQ+ community. From a march to social events, quizzes, club nights and a market, there’s something for everyone.

Transforming Princes Street into a riot of colour, sound and movement, the Edinburgh Festival Carnival (Sunday 16 July) is a day-long display of music, dance, costume design and acrobatics, featuring over 800 performers. Samba and Chinese dancing and dragons will stir things up, before a musical showcase marking the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush brings festivities to an unforgettable close.

Kicking off this weekend, Largo Arts Week (Saturday 15 – Sunday 23 July) celebrates the talent of the local artistic community, while inviting guests to come and help entertain attendees. Alongside an open studios event, showcasing the work of over 60 artists, there will be live music, comedy, games and more.

MUSIC

One of the largest and most respected events of its kind in Europe, the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival (until Sunday 23 July) is back with more than 100 events taking place in theatres, parks, pubs and clubs across the city. Highlights this weekend include the London Afrobeat Collective, rising stars the Nathan Somevi Trio, and American vocalist Ali Affleck bringing her ‘Stomp Off’ to town.

Leith Depot plays host to some up-and-coming indie, experimental and pop acts in Fuzz Bat’s Summer All Dayer (Saturday 15 July). The eight acts hail from across Scotland and further afield, and include avant-garde musical collective Raiments, improv noise duo Off Brand, and rock opera outfit Sloth Metropolis.

Some of Scotland’s most talented young musicians take to Perth Concert Hall’s stage for the NYOS Symphony Orchestra Summer Concert (Saturday 15 July). Led by Martyn Brabbins and featuring acclaimed violinist Elena Urioste, they will be guiding you through a repertoire which includes works by Elgar and Strauss, alongside a contemporary piece by Scottish composer Claire McCue.

STAGE

Glasgow Southside’s annual comedy festival Laugh In The Park (Saturday 15 July) returns to Queen’s Park Arena with ten of the funniest names in Scottish comedy, who aim to deliver three hours of belly laughs between them. Amongst the acts are Tom Stade, Susie McCabe, Mark Nelson and Jay Lafferty, with Billy Kirkwood hosting.

Over 30 years after it first opened, the sensationally popular musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (until Saturday 15 July) is still going strong and it’s back at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, as part of its most recent tour. Featuring all of Holly’s classic hits, it tells the story of his rise, success and untimely death, aged just 22.

Chatterbox comedians Adam Rowe and Dan Nightingale are taking their hit podcast out on the road in [Have A Word – The Live Podcast] (https://list.co.uk/whats-on/29763/have-a-word-the-live-podcast) (Saturday 15 July) and they’ll be swinging by Glasgow’s O2 Academy this weekend to share their thoughts on, well, everything.

SCREEN

Tom Cruise will be running, jumping, hanging from stuff, gazing wistfully into the distance, and hopefully continuing to save cinema in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the latest instalment in the popular spy series, from regular director Christopher McQuarrie. Hayley Atwell joins the gang, which includes returnees Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson.

Returning to the small screen is Tony McNamara’s Catherine the Great dramedy, The Great, which takes a riotous, anti-historical approach to the Russian Empress’s life story. Starring Elle Fanning in the title role and Nicholas Hoult as her husband and adversary Peter III, if the third series of this Lionsgate+ show is anything like those that preceded it, it’s going to be a blast.

Tiffany Haddish’s Detective Danner is back to rattle more suspects in the second series of AppleTV+ hit The Afterparty from Christopher Miller. Taking place in the aftermath of a wedding, it features a cast including Poppy Liu, Jack Whitehall, Ken Jeong, Elizabeth Perkins and Paul Walter Hauser.

PODCASTS

In Stirring It Up With Andi & Miquita Oliver the mother-daughter presenting duo invite a celebrity guest and their plus one round for dinner, drinks and some interesting discussions. They kick things off with Kathy Burke, who is joined by comedy writer Pippa Brown, with Rizzle Kicks star (and Oliver family member), Jordan Stephens, following her up.

From the makers of Serial Productions and The New York Times, five-part podcast, The Retrievals delves into the disturbing events which took place at the Yale Fertility Center, looking at how women’s pain was dismissed. It’s presented by This American Life’s Susan Burton.

Ahead of the Women’s World Cup, which kicks off next week, Yorkshire comic Maisie Adam (who recently showed off her ball skills in Soccer Aid) discusses her love of football and the challenges she has experienced as a female fan in Maisie Adam: The Beautiful Game.

VISUAL ART

The art of four artist-photographers is under the microscope in Space To Breathe (Saturday 15 July – Sunday 6 August). This exhibition centres on the physical and mental creative processes of Harry Cory Wright, Susan Derges, Andy Goldsworthy and Alexander Lindsay, who are all known for their work documenting the natural world.

Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket is the setting for an exhibition of existing, newly repurposed works in Leonor Antunes: the apparent length of a floor area (until Sunday 8 October). Antunes’ sculptural installations undermine traditional distinctions between art, design and craft, allowing audiences to think about sculpture in new ways.

Now showing at Glasgow’s Tramway Jala Wahid – Conflagration (until Sunday 10 September) is a new body of work delving into the relationship between Britain and Kurdistan through the lens of oil. Oil becomes a symbolic material through which nationalism, statelessness, colonialism and Kurdish identity can be explored.