AROUND TOWN

Explore local independent bookstores and meet like-minded bookworms on Bookshop Crawls of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Various venues, Glasgow, Saturday 30 May; various venues, Edinburgh, Sunday 31 May.

Hit podcast I’m Grand Mam presents Happy Campers, a live show combining stand-up, storytelling and theatrics. City Halls & Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Thursday 28 May; The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Friday 29 May.

The brand-new Leith Food Festival (Saturday 30 & Sunday 31 May) arrives at Edinburgh’s Leith Links this weekend with live music, cookery theatre, artisan markets and street food from Scotland’s top vendors. 

MUSIC

Multi-instrumentalist Puma Blue plays The Art School in Glasgow this Saturday as part of his European tour. He’s best known for his falsetto voice and jazz-inflected, lo-fi textures. 

Now with three critically-acclaimed albums under her belt, Carla J Easton brings her DIY pop and post-punk sound to The Rum Shack Dancehall in Glasgow this Friday 29 May.

Electronic musical extravaganza Days Festival returns to The Pitt, Edinburgh on Saturday 30 May with a line-up featuring Daniel Avery, DJ Seinfeld, Helena Hauff and more. The event features indoor and outdoor stages as well as a food market.

STAGE

Breathtaking Roads, the latest offering from A Play, A Pie, And A Pint, follows the isolated Ruari, whose life forever changes when they strike up an unlikely friendship with two lesbian bikers. The show is playing at Òran Mór in Glasgow until Saturday 30 May.

Romance blossoms when an ex-Secret Service agent is hired as the bodyguard to superstar Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard (until Saturday 30 May). This production, playing at Glasgow’s King’s Theatre, stars Pussycat Doll and Grammy-nominated artist Melody Thornton. 

Every night, Jenny hears ghostly footsteps in her baby’s room. When drama rears its head at a housewarming party, Jenny, her partner and their guests decide to stay up and see for themselves. Award-winning thriller 2:22 A Ghost Story is on at The Edinburgh Playhouse until Saturday 30 May.

SCREEN

Based on a 4chan creepypasta and YouTube series, A24 now brings Backrooms to the big screen. When furniture salesman Clark disappears into an endless dimension of rooms and corridors, his therapist follows him, only to discover that there is more hidden within the backrooms. In cinemas from Friday.

In the late 1970s, Alysia’s father moves his family to San Francisco so he can live freely as a gay man. Fairyland sees their father-daughter bond tested as his lifestyle clashes with societal expectations and the AIDS crisis looms. In cinemas from Friday.

A Mi Manera (My Way) (Saturday 30 May) is a short film programme screening at St Peter’s Church in Edinburgh as part of CinemaAttic’s Latin Connections Film Festival. The programme focuses on change, creation and what people build when the world is not built for them. 

PODCASTS

In 1876, Americans buried a time capsule filled with 100 objects meant to tell their story. Today, Roman Mars and historian Jill Lepore do a deep-dive in A History Of The United States In 100 Objects, discovering what the capsule reveals about how we author our own history. 

Hit That Perfect Beat tells the story of London Records, from its chaotic early days in the 1980s to its later domination of the music scene, as well as the artists its worked with along the way, such as Bananarama and the Sugababes. 

Whether through climate change or political instability, the world as we know it feels on the brink of collapse. Are We Doomed? investigates the greatest risks facing humanity and sorts the true threats from the apocalyptic fantasies. 

VISUAL ART

Ursula Cleary’s work combines painting, collage and found materials. Her new solo exhibition at the Edelweiss Gallery in Glasgow, Landing Ground (until Sunday 31 May), explores forgotten histories using Glasgow’s post-industrial landscape as inspiration. 

Wendy McMurdo: The Digital Mirror uses photography to reflect on growing up in the digital age and how technology impacts children, from learning to imaginative play. Her exhibition can be viewed at the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh from Saturday 30 May.

Earth, Water, Fire And Air (Friday 29 May–Saturday 20 June) is a new exhibition at Edinburgh’s Open Eye Gallery, in which artist Chris Bushe explores the elemental forces that shape the landscapes he returns to: Aberdeenshire, the Hebrides and the Greek Islands.

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