AROUND TOWN

Edinburgh’s multi-arts festival LeithLate (Friday 30 June – Sunday 2 July) is back for a weekend of street poetry, performance art, exhibitions, short films, live music, art installations and more. With its theme of ‘Outside The Box’, it’s all about trying new things and celebrating connection through fun and discovery.

Dundee Restaurant Week (until Sunday 9 July) is the city of Discovery's biggest food showcase, a ten-day event that increases awareness of the its finest culinary establishments, whilst also providing discounts. A wide range of cuisine will be available, ensuring there’s something to get everyone’s taste buds tingling.

Edinburgh Open Workshop will be flinging open its doors for their first ever charity fundraiser. Their Choose Love Makers Market (Saturday 1 July) will display the wares of a wonderful selection of local makers. There will also be a chance to have a crack at screen-printing, take part in a raffle and sample some cold William & Johnson brews.

MUSIC

The best new Scottish talent will assemble this weekend for the Queen’s Park All Dayer (Saturday 1 July) which brings together established acts and up-and-comers across the musical spectrum, such as Fauves, Dictator, Parliamo, and many more.

With a focus on classical performances, the East Neuk Festival (until Sunday 2 July) sees world-class musicians descend on the area, winning over audiences in venues from Crail and Anstruther to Kilrenny. Highlights include the Belcea Quartet and rootsy folk band Wayward Jane.

Direct from London’s West End, Mania: The ABBA Tribute (Saturday 1 July) is one of the world’s most beloved celebrations of ABBA. Aiming to revive memories of when the quartet ruled the airwaves, the show prides itself on attention to detail and will be dusting off those flares for some belting renditions of all your favourite hits.

STAGE

Winner of Best New Musical at the 2019 WhatsOnStage awards, Heathers The Musical (Saturday 1 July) is a rock musical based on the hit 1989 film starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater. Find out what all the fuss is about when this blackly comic bitch-fest swings by Glasgow’s King’s Theatre as part of its new national tour.

Billed as the show that defines a decade, Calling Planet Earth (Sunday 2 July) is a must for all those nostalgic for the 80s. A live band will be playing symphonic arrangements of 80s classics from the likes of Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet as performers deliver out of this world vocals. Glasgow’s Theatre Royal is where it’s at.

A multi-award-winning comedian best known for BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz and for his work as an actor in Sky’s Officially Special and BBC’s The Ark, Ian Smith (Saturday 1 July) will be trying out his new work-in-progress solo show at Edinburgh’s Monkey Barrel Comedy this weekend. He describes it as being about stress, but in a fun way.

SCREEN

The verdict coming out of the latest Indy film’s Cannes Film Festival screening was withering, but it’s time for you to make up your own mind as Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny hits cinemas. James Mangold takes the reins of the fifth and final instalment in the Harrison Ford-fronted adventure franchise. Phoebe Waller-Bridge provides assistance, with Mads Mikkelsen as the big bad.

Léonor Serraille follows her excellent 2017 film Jeune Femme with Mother And Son which shadows an Ivorian immigrant over a number of years as she struggles to keep her and her children afloat in suburban Paris. Annabelle Lengronne (winner of Best Actress at the Stockholm Film Festival) will blow you away in the lead.

Based on the graphic novel of the same name Nimona is an animated adventure featuring a teenage shapeshifter who is targeted by a knight for assassination, before sparking an unlikely partnership. Chloë Grace Moretz and Riz Ahmed voice the bickering pair in this enjoyably subversive effort.

PODCASTS

The scene-stealer from Ghosts and This Time With Alan Partridge reads out fans’ letters and solves their problems in Lolly Adefope’s Fanmail, a satirical podcast featuring appearances from celebrity guests including Steve Coogan, Brett Goldstein, Mae Martin and Charlotte Ritchie.

Little debates that are a big deal are what it’s all about in VS which sees host Coco Khan invite experts and fans to go head-to-head on debates that fuel and threaten to shatter friendships (Arsenal vs Spurs, McDonalds vs KFC, Peep Show vs The Office), with listeners deciding who wins in the weekly vote.

The star of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Ellie Kemper, teams up with comedy pal Scott Eckert on Born To Love, a playful, upbeat and wide-ranging podcast which celebrates our obsessions. It’s the podcast equivalent of The Fast Show’s ‘Brilliant!’ sketch.

VISUAL ART

Edinburgh’s Detail Framing & Gallery is the setting for Incremental (until Saturday 29 July), a solo exhibition from Rhona Taylor made up of abstract paintings and screen prints. These 12 paintings on plywood represent a marked slowing down of Taylor’s process and are inspired by particular places without depicting them in a literal sense.

Witness the unveiling of a new sculpture in Launch Event: The Brolly (Saturday 1 July) at Glasgow’s Platform this weekend. Created by Maria Gondek, The Brolly is a humorous design that collects rainwater, simulates the flow of a fountain and creates an immersive sensory encounter through the refraction of light. Following the launch, it will be on display from Monday 3 – Saturday 29 July.

Selkirk’s Burnside Gallery is currently displaying a collection of collages and small tapestries from John Berry and David Ingrey. Dialogues (until Saturday 29 July) sees these two artists declaring their own way of looking and finding as they present work with a slow, careful eye behind it.