October is coming. We’re sinking into autumn and winter is striding up the path. Summer - if you could call it that this year - has definitely gone. Those tattered Fringe posters still lining the streets of Edinburgh are no longer adverts. They’re now mementoes.
But if the capital is still catching its breath after August Scotland hasn’t lost its appetite for festivals. Here are 10 likely to brighten up the darkening days and lengthening nights.
And we’re off. Wigtown’s annual Book Festival is up and running this weekend down in deepest Dumfries and Galloway, continuing until October 6. If you haven’t been before it comes highly recommended. This year’s programme sees appearances from Irvine Welsh, actor James Cosmo, Pam Ayres, Cerys Matthews, Hebridean Baker Coinneach MacLeod, Sinead Gleeson and recent Herald Magazine cover stars Dougie Donnelly, Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson among many others. But over and above the high quality of its literary offerings, the town is wonderfully welcoming and there are a ton of great book shops and cafes to visit. Oh, and by the way, it’s a great place for tractor-spotting too.
Maybe you could combine a trip to Wigtown with a stop in Ayrshire for the Cumnock Tryst Festival. Composer James MacMillan’s hometown festival celebrates its 10th birthday this year and it got the best present the other week when it won the Classical Music prize in this year’s Sky Arts Awards.
Opening on Wednesday, October 2 and running until the following Sunday, this year’s programme brings together local and international musicians in East Ayrshire. Pianist Steven Osborne is among this year’s guests, as is tenor Joshua Ellicot who will be making his Tryst debut singing Bach, Schubert, Schumann and Benjamin Britten.
The Maxwell Quartet, the Euan Stevenson Trio, Tommy Smith’s Youth Jazz Orchestra and Ayrshire fiddler Alastair Savage are also in the mix and MacMillan himself will be leading a whole day of performances - entitled Music of Land Reclamation - on Thursday, October 3, in collaboration with Ayrshire composer Gillian Walker and students from the Robert Burns Academy.
Already well under way, the Scottish Geology Festival continues until October 6 with a series of nationwide events that seek to remind Scots of how the rocks on which we stand shaped the history and culture of the country. It should also serve as a marker of the importance of Scots in the story of geological studies, as can be seen in the current exhibition Women on the Rocks: Pioneers of Scottish Geology which continues at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall until next year.
There’s a whole programme of walks and talks lined up around the country. Look out for a guided walk up Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh with Angus Miller from Geowalks on October 1, Dr Elsa Panciroli discussing her findings about mammals in the time of dinosaurs at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow on Wednesday, October 2, and fossil walks on Cromarty Beach on October 10 and October 12.
scottishgeologytrust.org/festival
Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival
There is more to cinema than Marvel movies and Ridley Scott’s new Gladiator movie. Running from October 1 to October 5 at the CCA in Glasgow as well as online via the streaming platform Klassiki (with an encore at Summerhall in Edinburgh on October 19), the programme brings together short films and classic examples of Eastern European cinema, including screenings of the Polish 1973 film The Hourglass Sanitorium, part of the festival’s Night Terrors strand. There are contemporary films too, including a number of recent films from Ukraine, including the war documentary Intercepted.
“Bridges Between” is the theme for this year’s celebration of storytelling (the largest such festival in the world as the organisers are proud to remind us). The festival is 35 years old this year, and, coincidentally, this is also the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Running from October 18 to October 31, highlights are likely to include Oran Mhoir, a multi-media collaboration between storyteller Eileen Budd and experimental folk duo Burd Ellen, Jeeva Raghunath’s Spicy Tales from India, Berlin-based Scots storyteller Rachel Clarke bringing stories from “a still divided Germany” and French-Cameroonian artist Fay Guiffo. There’s also a whole host of events for children and families. Based in and around the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh, there will also be events at the National Library, Netherbow Theatre and post-show Festival Nights at the Waverley Bar, as well as touring events.
Tenement Trail
October 12 sees the return of the Tenement Trail one-day festival; 12 hours of live music in venues in Glasgow’s east end, including the Barrowland Ballroom, St Luke’s, BAAD, Van Winkle, 226 Gallowgate and McChuills. Festival headliners are Declan Welsh and the Decadent West who made their festival debut at Tenement Trail, so what better way to celebrate the festival’s 10th anniversary? Other acts lined up to take part include Neon Waltz, Imogen & the Knife, BBC Music Introducing shortlisted Glasgow band Dutch Wine and Peach Crumb.
Nordic Music Days
Here’s a festival with a long history - 136 years so far - that is coming to Scotland for the first time. Opening in Glasgow on October 30 and running until November 3, this contemporary classical music festival presents Nordic - and for the first time Scottish - music as curated by composers and creators. Expect music from Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and, yes, Scotland. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Swedish ensemble Elefantora, Hebrides Ensemble,the RSNO, Vienna-based Chaos String Quartet and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra are all taking part. The festival has only taken place outwith Nordic countries three times in its history so this is quite a coup.
Central Scotland Documentary Film Festival, Stirling
Running from October 31 to November 4 at the Macrobert Arts Centre in Stirling, this year’s programme sees new films from Mark Cousins and BAFTA award-winner Duncan Cowles. The former’s A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, is the director’s new exploration of the works of Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. It will be followed by a Q&A with Cousins. Cowles’s Silent Men asks why so many of us with the XY chromosome struggle to show our feelings.
Other films to look out for include the European premiere of La Guardia Blanca, which looks at the impact of necropolitics and narcopolitics in contemporary Mexico and the Scottish premiere of The Contestant, Clair Titley’s astonishing story of a Japanese reality TV star left naked in a room for a year not knowing his efforts to win food, clothing and appliances were being beamed to an audience of millions.
Meanwhile, The opening night film, Meet the Buchanans, follows the inauguration of millionaire Scottish landowner Mike Buchanan as Clan Buchanan Highland Chief, the first for more than 300 years. Director Barbara Orton will take part in a Q&A session after the screening. The whole festival is proof, as ever, that life is stranger than fiction.
macrobertartscentre.org/cs-doc-fest
Biggar Little Festival
There’s no excuse needed to visit the South Lanarkshire town of Biggar. Still, this festival now in its 27th year adds a little spice to any potential day out. Running from October 18 to October 27, the headliners this year include Scottish pop legends The Bluebells, comedians Jim Smith, Jay Lafferty and Raymond Mearns, Biggar’s very own ukulele band The Dukes of Uke and trad titans Shooglenifty. Sounds like the Barony Restaurant in the town is going to be busy.
Soundhouse Winter Festival
And finally seeing us into winter comes this new five-day festival of live music at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. Opening on November 28, the line-up includes appearances from Callum Easter, Mr McFall’s Chamber and the joyous Megan Black. Sounds like the perfect winter warmer.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel