AROUND TOWN

Celebrate Edinburgh Pride this weekend with Pride Hoose Party (Saturday 20 June) at Edinburgh’s The Hoxton, hosted by drag royalty Chanel O’Conor, with international pop-house DJ Prince JayJay on the decks, plus lip-syncing, food stations and more.

At Glasgow’s SWG3, they’ll be hosting Europe’s leading sneaker festival Crepe City (Sunday 21 June) where you can check out rare and exclusive sneakers and streetwear, accompanied by delicious street food options, live performances and a DJ.

Botanics Lates (Friday 19 June) offers after-hours access to the beautiful Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh for a night of live music, creative workshops, visual art, and food and drinks. Meet artists, check out their Earth Matters exhibition, learn more about bugs and herbs, and dance or unwind in nature.

MUSIC

Edinburgh’s The Bongo Club will be hosting a Start Of Summer Shindig (Saturday 20 June) from Club_Nacht x Hobbes Music and featuring OOFT! (aka Ali Herron), a mainstay of Scotland’s underground dance scene.

Closing the Refugee Festival Scotland this weekend, Glasgow’s Southside music collective Makongo (Sunday 21 June) will be playing live at Glasgow’s The Rum Shack in a free event supported by The World Before.

At Glasgow's Candleriggs, Be United has a showcase, Soulstice, of three up-and-coming music acts that will ‘kick off this year’s summer’. The night of live music will feature Chelsea K & The Band, Kozyeli and Dromon. 

STAGE

Set in real time, The Borrowed Room (Friday 19 June) is an intimate chamber play from Dr Steven Maxwell, exploring masculinity, memory, belonging and the pressures of growing up in rural Scotland. Check it out at Edinburgh’s Summerhall Arts.

At The Stand in Glasgow, comedian Matthew Gallagher (Monday 22 June) will be hosting monthly show Mon In, where he invites guests into his ‘house’ for a night of fun, featuring sets from top comics, surprises, interactivity and, of course, laughs.

Head to Edinburgh’s Pianodrome this weekend for an evening of theatre, live music and experimentation featuring Mythography’s work-in-progress The Way For The Damned (Or The Lamentable Death Of The Scoundrel Don Juan) (Monday 22 June), plus excerpts from the best of the city’s grassroots theatre scene.

SCREEN

Effervescent animated adventure Lesbian Space Princess is the bonkers brainchild of Australian writer-directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese. It features The Pitt’s ace junior doctor Shabana Azeez as an anxiety ridden royal turned kick-ass heroine.

If Spielberg’s latest, Disclosure Day, has you wanting to revisit some of his previous films then Edinburgh’s Scotsman Picturehouse has you covered. Fizz & Flick: West Side Story (Saturday 20 & Sunday 21 June) combines the director’s Oscar-winning remake with a glass of fizz and some brunch.

Screening as part of Bleak Week: Cinema Of Despair, an annual film festival taking place at cinemas across the globe, Mick Jackson’s apocalyptic anti-war drama Threads (Friday 19 June) is screening at Glasgow Film Theatre this weekend.

PODCASTS

Clara & Munroe Are Into It sees pals and pop culture obsessives Clara Amfo and Munroe Bergdorf chatting about everything from the horror genre’s big comeback to the return of Ariana Grande, festivals, Kylie and Katie Price’s boyfriend.

In Hey Jonas! the musician brothers show their sillier side by offering dubious advice and nattering with the likes of Paul Rudd, Teddy Swims, Niall Horan, Bill Nye The Science Guy and Tiffany Haddish.

Hosted by US footballer Merritt Mathias and journalists Musa Okwonga and Julio Ricardo Varela, pivotal political moments in football history are explored in the World Cup themed Our Copa.

VISUAL ART

Newly opened at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery And Museum, Barbie: The Exhibition (until Sunday 18 October) is a major new look at the history and design of the famous and iconic doll, featuring more than 250 objects.

At Edinburgh’s Custom Lane, Urban Fabric (until Tuesday 30 June) is an exhibition of new and distinct yet complimentary works from local artists David Lemm and Louise Bennetts.

And finally, Collective in Edinburgh is the setting for Katie Paterson: Afterlife (Friday 19 June–Sunday 6 September 2026), a solo presentation from the internationally acclaimed artist showing as part of the gallery’s summer exhibition programme. It brings together nearly 200 amulets in a sculptural installation designed in collaboration with Berlin-based architects Zeller and Moye.

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