AROUND TOWN

Kicking off this week is the Perth Festival Of The Arts (until Saturday 1 June), a vibrant celebration of creativity and culture, both local and global, that brings together opera, comedy, art, kids events, music, and much more.

Edinburgh’s Brewhemia will be hosting a night of Gallic revelry with their Scottish Fling! (Sunday 26 May) which features traditional music and classic Scottish tunes from kilt-clad performers, with dancing very much encouraged.

If you’re looking to get your domestic situation sorted then the Ideal Home Show Scotland (Friday 24–Monday 27 May) should provide plenty of inspiration. It combines innovative products and solutions with live talks and the latest tech. Tickets include access to the Eat & Drink Festival. Glasgow’s SEC is where it’s at, grab a pair of free tickets to Ideal Home Show Scotland with the exclusive code THELIST.

MUSIC

Combining trad, funk and electronica, Elephant Sessions (Saturday 25 May) boast their own unique sound and have taken it all over the world. They’ll be treating audiences at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall to tracks from their most recent album, For The Night, as well as some favourites from its three predecessors.

She’s toured with the likes of Madison Beer and now American pop singer Leah Kate (Saturday 25 May) is the star of the show. Kate will be swinging by Glasgow’s SWG3 this weekend, performing tunes from her debut album, Super Over.

This silky voiced soul singer first came to our attention in 2010 as the runner-up on X Factor, and Rebecca Ferguson (Sunday 26 May) is now ready to retire from the music industry. Catch her while you can, as she promotes her most recent album, Heaven Part II, on her first tour in seven years. Glasgow’s Pavilion Theatre is the setting.

STAGE

Imaginate’s Edinburgh International Children’s Festival (Saturday 25 May–Sunday 2 June) is back to stimulate and entertain curious little minds with a characteristically awesome programme of theatre and dance.

Pondering aging, love and delusion, and revolving around a very unusual birthday party, Philip Ridley’s award-winning play The Fastest Clock In The Universe (until Saturday 25 May) is brought back to the stage in this new production at Edinburgh’s Assembly Roxy.

SCREEN

Following up Mad Max: Fury Road in appropriately action-packed, outrageously audacious style, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga tells the origin story of the titular heroine. Charlize Theron hands the role over to the estimable Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays the young Furiosa, with Chris Hemsworth in enjoyably OTT form as her adversary Dementus.

Glen Powell bags a role to savour in Richard Linklater’s mischievous take on a true story. Hit Man finds Powell donning a plethora of disguises as a college professor turned undercover mole. It hits cinemas this Friday before heading to Netflix in a couple of weeks.

Lithuanian romantic drama Slow brings together a dancer and a sign language interpreter (played by Greta Grinevičiūtė and Kęstutis Cicėnas) in a hugely charming, courageously unconventional story of out of sync lovers.

PODCASTS

BBC Sounds’ Dead Man Running focuses on local Inverness character Kim Avis who, to the surprise of many, becomes an international fugitive when his dark past catches up with him. Presented by investigative journalist and Invernessian Miles Bonner.

Promising to continue to give a voice to those who are at the centre of news stories, Media Storm is back for series four. Journalists Mathilda Mallinson and Helena Wadia pick apart the week’s headlines, cut through the culture wars, and find you the facts behind the fearmongering.

Over six easily digestible parts, comedy-tinged podcast Broomgate: A Curling Scandal tells a story of sporting controversy relating to a performance-enhancing broom. Former ‘tier two semi-professional curler’ John Cullen presents.

VISUAL ART

Back by popular demand, Perth’s ArTay Exhibition (until Sunday 26 May) gathers together established Scottish artists and fresh talent in a pop-up gallery which displays more than 300 works of art, right across the creative spectrum.

Beginning this weekend at Edinburgh’s Upright Gallery is exhibition Quiet (Saturday 25 May – Friday 14 June) which brings together two Scotland-based artists, Charlene Scott and Roanne O’Donnell, whose works are calm, contemplative and understated.

And finally, inspired by the British Library’s exhibition, in Beyond The Bassline (until Sunday 25 August), Mitchell Library have assembled a panel display which tells the story of Black music in Britain over 500 years, including nods to Glasgow’s local music scene.