AROUND TOWN

Banish the last of the winter blues and fire things up with Boteco Do Brasil’s Mardi Gras Edinburgh (Saturday 1 March), a late night carnival party featuring live music, samba dancers, face painting, giveaways and more.

There’s more cultural flavour over at Glasgow Botanic Gardens’ Kibble Palace where they’ll be celebrating the Japanese Matsuri For Glasgow (Sunday 2 March). Try origami, learn Japanese alphabets, watch Taiko Japanese drumming performances and more in this family-friendly festival.

Bringing together the finest whisky producers from Fife and beyond, the Fife Whisky Festival (Friday 28 February – Sunday 2 March) delivers three days of great food, great company and great whisky, with tastings taking place at Cupar, Glenrothes and Dalgety Bay, and an opening dinner at Newburgh.

MUSIC

The brainchild of actress Vicky McClure and husband Jonny Owen, Day Fever (Saturday 1 March) offers over 30s the chance to let their hair down and still make it home for dinner. Go wild at Edinburgh’s O2 Academy.

Experience the classic film scores of iconic composer Ennio Morricone, the man behind the sounds of Once Upon A Time In The West, Cinema Paradiso, The Hateful Eight and more. Led by conductor Giacomo Loprieno, the Ensemble Symphony Orchestra will be Discovering Morricone (Sunday 2 March) at The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh.

And if you enjoyed recent documentaries Boyzone: No Matter What and Boybands Forever, you’ll be pleased to learn that Keith Duffy and Brian McFadden are back on the road as duo Boyzlife (Friday 28 February). Catch them at Glasgow’s Pavilion Theatre.

STAGE

In fun farce Dial M For Mayhem (until Saturday 1 March) now showing at Dundee Rep, a group of travelling actors get into all sorts of bother in the Scottish Highlands and Islands as they perform their production of Dial M For Murder.

Over at Glasgow’s SEC Armadillo, performing arts troupe Shen Yu (until Sunday 2 March) take you on a journey through 5000 years of Chinese culture in a show featuring dance, orchestral music and spectacular costumes and sets.

He’s already built up a large online following, appeared in Ted Lasso and now you can catch Derek Mitchell (Saturday 1 & Sunday 2 March) in person as he takes to the stage at The Stand in Glasgow and Edinburgh this weekend with his debut comedy hour, Double Dutch.

SCREEN

Pamela Anderson makes her acting comeback in the sweet Vegas-set drama The Last Showgirl which follows her fading showgirl, Shelly, as she faces a potential change of profession. Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista and Billie Lourd provide the support.

The first part of the fourth series of the adorable and acclaimed mockumentary Abbott Elementary has just dropped on Disney+, with the first eight episodes available. Catch up with those passionate and hapless Philadelphia schoolteachers.

Now available on Netflix, limited series Toxic Town tells the tragic story of the Corby toxic waste case with a cast that includes Jodie Whittaker, Aimee Lou Wood and Robert Carlyle. It’s written by the multi-award-winning Jack Thorne (Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, Enola Holmes).

PODCASTS

In Theatre Of Crime, friends and performers Pearl Mackie, Emma Sidi and Kiell Smith-Bynoe bring the case of The Camden Town Murder to life. They reinvestigate it from the perspective of those involved, and act out the drama themselves.

You might need a strong stomach but it’s worth learning more about a man who’s hell-bent on shaping our future. In Introducing X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story Jill Lepore takes a look at this frighteningly ambitious character through a science fiction and comic book lens.

In Making A Scene With Matt Lucas And David Walliams the comedy collaborators turn their famous friends’ lives into movies, reliving key moments, working out what kind of film their life story would be, and whether it’d be successful or a box office bin fire. Rob Brydon, Richard E Grant and Alan Carr reveal all.

VISUAL ART

Now showing at Dundee’s Lamb Gallery, A Big World Of Small Things (until Friday 25 April) highlights the minute and microscopic. From molecular models to microscope slides, embryos and more, it celebrates all things small and how they have been studied.

Reaching the final stop of its tour is exhibition Jerwood Survey III (Friday 28 February – Sunday 4 May) which presents new commissions from ten early-career artists. See work from the likes of Che Applewhaite, Aqsa Arif and MV Brown at Edinburgh’s Collective.

And finally, also opening this weekend is Portia Zvavahera: Zvakazarurwa (Saturday 1 March – Sunday 25 May), an exhibition of beautiful, dream-inspired paintings from the acclaimed Zimbabwean artist.

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