THERE may be other fixtures on Saturday, but for the folk of Edinburgh's port, the second Saturday in June is always Leith Gala Day. Running from 10.30am to 4.30pm, the festivities on Leith Links really kick off at 12.45pm when the local groups taking part in the Gala Day Pageant arrive at the park.
To welcome them there this year, local heroes Boots for Dancing are playing a set on what the organisers precisely term the "live sound stage". The punk-funk pioneers, who recorded on the pioneering Pop:Aural label at the start of the 1980s, had their back catalogue re-curated on Athens of the North on a double album entitled Undisco Kidds recently and have been tipping the occasional rhythmic toe back into the capital's gig scene since. Frontman Dave Carson and his cohorts will be ensuring lunchtime goes with a stylish swing.
leithfestival.com
EDINBURGH's Festival Theatre is the venue for this year's Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland on Sunday afternoon, when people already accustomed to dressing up don their finery to learn which of them has been deemed worthy of special honour this year by the critical voices in our newspapers, magazines and online.
An opportunity to rub shoulders with some of those whose work you may have enjoyed on stage over the past twelvemonth, tickets are available to all theatre-lovers from the theatre's box office. The presentations begin at 4pm and there is a welcome drink included in the price from 3.30pm. This year's guest presenter is well kent behind bar in TV's Still Game – actor Gavin Michell.
criticsawards.theatrescotland.com
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