Keep an eye out for all sorts of shows by independent performers: comedy, magic, fire, etc.. The…read moreEdinburgh Festival Fringe is a joyous annual event that happens every August. Short street performances are spread throughout the city, particularly centering around the Royal Mile. We were unlucky with the weather in that it was pouring rain the day we visited. And so it was difficult to find shows as well as for the entertainers who had to stall until a large enough crowd had gathered. For the ones that we did stop to watch, they were quite enjoyable.

I happened to be visiting Edinburgh for a college reunion during the time of the Fringe Festival,…read moreso after meeting up with my friends at the airport, we all headed to the Royal Mile (which I fondly started calling the High Mile on account of its elevation and because so many people were high on life, drugs or alcohol!) to soak in the atmosphere. And what an atmosphere it was! Full of buskers, mimes, musicians, and eclectic acts - from Japanese pop to American tap dancing to an Eastern European theatre group performing a moving play about Jewish children interned at a Nazi concentration camp. It was a warm and sunny afternoon and the crowd was out in force, and I could clearly see the shimmering blue waters of the Firth of Forth in the distance. After stopping by for a wonderful meal of haggis and salmon and IPA at the Whiski Bar and Restaurant (different review for that one), we plunged back into the creativity and madness, enjoying the magical experience that's the Fringe!

I had the opportunity to take part in the preview night of the Best of the West Festival, and I…read moremust say I was really impressed by what I heard and tasted in West on the Green this Wednesday night. Upon arrival, we received a few beer tokens, followed by a very welcoming introduction. First to the beer: West's beer is advertised with the slogan "Glaswegian heart, German head" and it is possibly the best sentence you sell me beer with - Munich Red and the Hefeweizen are both very good in their own genre, and I'm sure that you could say the same about the rest, too. Loch Fyne's oysters gained popularity quickly for a good reason, and the smoked salmon was brilliant as well. Luss Smokehouse's salmon paté and the trout are definitely a must try when you're at the festival, I always get surprised how great simple snacks such as oatcakes, paté and a bit of salmon can be. And now comes to the absolute highlight of the night for me - the cheese selection! J.R. Fine Foods exhibited several creamy cheddar variations from chilli and tomato to various whiskeys (including Laphroaig) and my personal favourite, the Old Smokey that has a somewhat unusual, but very harmonic and unique taste. One decision I made that night is that I have to change the fact that the Yelp business page has no reviews as of now, and I am likely to do that pretty soon. All this accompanied by delicious home made cup cakes, good music and last but not least, even most importantly, the people who I had the joy of sharing this evening with - I am really happy I could make it. As far as the food is concerned, I can only recommend visiting the festival. You won't be disappointed.

Attended the Feastival on Saturday and had a great time. The…read moregreat weather and a few drinks in a local beer Garden set me up nicely for tasting all the food that was on offer. I managed to try 4 different offerings by sharing each of them with the "better half". Everything I had was good - Kimichi Cheese Burger - First time trying "Kimichi" and it was lovely, very spicy. Pulled Pork Roll and Corn on the cob - Very nice. Slow Roasted Caribbean Chicken and rice - Really enjoyed it, although I had wanted the Jerk Chicken but they had sold out within a couple of hours. Fish and Chips from the Finneston - Amazingly fresh and tasty. So all in the food was great, Glasgow needs more events like this and hopefully it will be coming back soon. I had never been to the venue before and was really surprised by it even being there to be honest, it felt strange coming out after all that food and beer into the middle of the Barras. My only negative on the day would be the beer side of things. - Beers were a bit overpriced in my opinion, had to queue for a beer token and then queue again for an actual beer - Then told the beer was off for 15 min. To be honest though it did not impact massively on a great day and event and the real aim of eating lots of great street food.

We came on Sunday after winning two free meals via Yelp! We had the 3 year old in tow but were told…read moreby Kiltr it was very child friendly and there would be face-painting and other activities. We arrived a wee bit early before it opened at 4pm (odd time for a Sunday right?) but had to wait even longer as they didn't open the doors until 4:15. When you are waiting with a 3 1/2 year old not ideal. We went in and had a look around and decided to try places we couldn't normally book a table to eat in. I went for Smokey and the Bandit pulled pork and NBH had a Kimchi burger from Kimchi Cult. We would have gotten chips from The Finnieston for Blondie Boy but they weren't ready. It was a bit shocking to see stands not ready when doors opened late if I'm honest. That being said NBH loved his burger and I enjoyed my pulled pork but would have liked some BBQ sauce on it. We couldn't see any face-painting which when you've told your child they can get their face painted and then they can't is kinda a big deal. If I'd not been told it would be there specifically I wouldn't have missed it. All in all it was a good event that can be improved on in the future.

This year's festival was darn good I tell thee. It was brilliant with so much going on throughout…read morethe whole weekend. It was only through my man who spotted a photo challenge competition online that we found ourselves on the streets of the Merchant City. We both entered the 6x4 Panoptic Challenge that was hosted by Trongate 103. We collected our 6 themes and we only had 4 hours to take 6 photos and in the order of the themes, meaning there was no going back. This was going to be definitely a challenge especially with us going round together. "I spotted that photo opportunity first!!!" Actually having the photo challenge was a great idea as it made us explore the festival even more. We came across many street performers and checked out the many stalls in the Scottish and Continental markets. We went along to Merchant City Square where we had fun at The Festival of Fudge and most delicious it was. We met very interesting characters including policitians from Fudge Poltics to a professor of fudge where I got a history lesson in various fudge of the world. 10 minutes of my life I will never get back. We also headed along to the Britannia Panopticon where they were holding a bazaar with many wonderful goodies on sale. There was an amazing milliner and I just wanted to buy all her hats but alas payday was too far and a MOT was to near. I got her card and with a friend's wedding coming up I think a hat is on the list. Above is only just the Saturday, phew, but ach why not, we headed back along on the Sunday for more and especially as all the photographs were going to be on display at Trongate 103. Unfortunately neither or us won but to be honest we weren't that bothered, it was just so nice to see your work up on display. I saw walking bands, a carnival parade, live bands at the Creation Studios Stage and also some lovely Yelp staff where I got myself some lovely groovy new sunglasses. I've probably missed out half of what we saw as there was so much going on. It's a great weekend and well worth the visit. I cannae wait until next year's already.

Darn it all to hell! OK so this is an update on the festival (2011) and I'm searching for a way to…read moreaward an additional star to the folks... cannie be done... darn it all to hell! Yeah, so they did the unlikely and made it even better this year. More performances, more food, more stalls, more vibe, more moreness (yeah, they even managed to get me to make up a new word... moreness). If you read my review from last year, then you'll gather that this is a festival not to miss. Well, if this year is anything to go by then that statement not only desrves to be stuck to, but shold also be underlined, whacked into bold and maybe even a wee font size increase. Residents and visitors alike. This is a must.

Sooo I'm a raver baby... So why don't you kill me. Remember that song?…read more My first time at a techno festival and riverside was a good one. Cool place to have a festival. Tour busses going by as the ravers are Queuing. A real mix of people and a real mix of age groups. Great big space to have an event in, at first I couldn't imagine how it was going to pan out! Drinks tokens made the bar Q go quick. Main stage had multiple acts including 2 Many DJ's and Vitallic. This all kicked off at 4.30. Act after act and this kept going till well after 11! Unfortunately my before festival eats I was to full to have anything from the Smoke Van or breaking bread but I'm sure I will get round to them eventually. All bars were well stocked until they ran out of cider. This sounds gross but men and female port a loo's is the way to go!! No massive Q's and still a bit Minging but not as bad as I e seen!

First time to the Riverside festival for me and there was none of the issues I had heard had…read moreoccurred at previous events. The token system worked well and meant minimum queuing for booze which is always a bonus when you don't want to miss to much of the acts on stage. The crowd was a real mix and the majority seemed to be up for enjoying a great day out. The age range seemed to vary between 17 and 59 which made for a good atmosphere. I loved that it was all cans so no need for plastic cups from the bar and though the range was limited, I was happy enough with the options on offer. Music wise I loved vitalic and felix the housecoat most of all. Sadly I did not try the food on offer as instead I went for pre and post meals with fellow yelpers. Great day out, in a cool location and with an awesome backing track. My boiler suit, dust mask and glow sticks also blended me in perfect with the crowd. Why 4 stars and not 5? A can of strongbow costing 4 quid a pop was just a bit pricey for me!

As a newcomer to Glasgow, I have only just begun to discover the wealth of arts and culture the…read morecity has to offer. Yesterday, at Tenement TV's Tenement Trail Festival, I underwent a crash course in the range and quality of Glasgow music and discovered some pretty fantastic venues along the way. With a reputation world-wide for its music scene (take it from a foreigner to these parts), it's never too difficult to find some decent live music on any given night here. The downside of this musical bounty is the impossible task of ever having enough time to hear everything and also the nearly impossible task of knowing where to hear the good stuff. Tenement Trail helps solve both of these problems in a oner. The organisers, in collaboration with some top quality music venues in Glasgow (Broadcast, Nice n Sleazy, O2 ABC 2, Flat 0/1, and King Tut's Wah Wah Hut) have selected some of the best musicians and performers while simultaneously covering a broad range of styles. From the hard, fast-paced, punk pop of Deathcats to the nostalgic, 50s rock of the beguiling Laura St. Jude to the trumpets-ablaring, full-on ska ensemble Bombskare, the festival showcases (or rather shows off) the variety of genres to be found Glasgow. And possibly even more impressive, the range of genres Glasgow can support. If the musicianship and energy of the performers didn't impress me enough, the dedication and enthusiasm of the audience - trekking through the damp and drizzle between venues to pack out even early afternoon slots - shows more than anything that the Glasgow music scene is really something remarkable. If you missed it this year, you really missed something special. Even after an 8-hour intensive introduction, I feel like I've barely scratched the surface, and I can't wait to continue my education. Last but not least, the inevitable run-down of my TTV14 experience: 2.45pm A delicious, coma-inducing sourdough pizza from Broadcast after picking up the wristband, aka my golden ticket into the magical world of Tenement Trail 3.15pm To Sleazy's for Acrylic, followed by Deathcats 5.45pm Return to Broadcast for the end of Twin Mirrors, Laura St. Jude, and Teencanteen 8.15pm Crawl back to Sleazy's for Medicine Men 7.15pm Jaunt over to Flat 0/1 for Have Mercy Las Vegas and some boogies to excellent fiddle and banjo support 8.30pm Backtrack to Broadcast for Bombskare and some truly heart-pumping, sweat-drenching boogies! 09.45 Final journey to King Tut's Wah Wha Hut for Randolf's Leap and Neon Waltz I can't hit save until I give my give my top three, so I leave you with this... 3) Deathcats 2) Have Mercy Las Vegas and first place in my book, 1) Teencanteen

I really like the idea of Let's Eat Glasgow: it offers a sampler from restaurants that I wanted to…read moretry for long, and there is even a good cause behind the event, so it was no question that I will be there. Some information stands (such as one about vegan food) and a small marketplace offering delicates from cheese to coffee could be found outside the fair, but we didn't spend much time browsing these, as we were pretty hungry by the time we arrived. We chose Ubiquitous Chip's meat plate containing air dried, cured, smoked and salted meats with sour dough bread The Gannet's rabbit croquettes for starters, which were both really tasty. The massive queue at Mother India's stand made us curious, and luckily, the food was worth waiting for: we paid three tokens for a generous plate of their wonderful lamb biryani which was enough for two of us. We finished the culinary experiment with Café Gandolfi's caramel shortcakes. Unfortunately, we arrived at the end of a nightmarishly busy day at about five o'clock, and it was too late to enjoy any of the cooking demonstrations, but just in time to listen to a bit of live music - the singers were really good. We also missed some of the foods already, for instance, Crabshakk ran out of all the food by the time we arrived and El Perro Negro of confit Korean fried chicken by then. Hopefully, I'll get to taste these some time in the near future. If there is one thing I need to criticise, it is the fact that there was a bit of confusion about exact opening times. The official home page of the event and the Facebook page seemed to be a bit contradictory. An article in The Scotsman, only linked to the FB page, proved most informative about the event plan, and I am not absolutely sure I would have found it if I had been on the go, trying to find out more about the event.

A fantastic event for the organisers to showcase Glasgow's finest restaurants and Scotland's best…read moreproduce did not disappoint. The weather was fantastic, the buzz/vibe was spot on and the food sublime. Between my partner I we had 4 small dishes and each was superb. We went to Ox and Finch, Guys, Stravaigan and Cail Bruich. We could have had at least one more each but they had sold out of tokens. Plenty of opportunities to sample some of Scotland's finest produce including whisky, Cheese, meat, seafood, Gin, Fruit and Veg and quirky things like Handmade pop corn, Honey, spends and dips. I really hope all the businesses did well not only on the day but the after event sales too. I hope you return for next year.

Shake off your January blues by checking out the always excellent line-up of comedians coming to…read moreGlasgow in March, which this year runs from the 11th to 28th. It's not only a good way to see your favourite comedians, but to find new venues you might not know about with some of the lesser known acts playing small venues at a modest price. It comes on the back of the Glasgow Film Festival in February and helps me laugh my way out of the winter and into the spring. So far this year I am going to Jim Jeffries, Jerry Sadowitz and Stewart Lee, all across different venues, and will no doubt go to some other gigs on a random prowl around town. A great opportunity to discover new venues in Glasgow, and of course, to have a good laugh!

The Glasgow Comedy Festival features a range of comedians from the unknown to the superstars, like…read moreFrankie Boyle. There are performances in venues all over the city, from the arenas to the tiny pubs. Anything that puts Glasgow on the map and gets people out and enjoying the city gets a thumbs up from me.