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 loved this the first time I came with my little pal Erik. Fantastic line up! Great scenery!…read moreFantastic people! NO queue in NO queue out!!!!! Gotta be worth a few stars just for that :-) This year however, someone thought it would be a good idea to allow a bus GIVING away Muller Rice! Not only did the muppet on the tanoy start shouting about it at 9am on the Friday morning (OMG) but because nobody ever disposes of the empty or partially empty pts, the whole area stunk of cottage cheese by Friday afternoon! Mr Muller Rice The most hated man at T in The Park 2008

This is the biggest music festival in Scotland and popular UK wide. It takes place on a disused…read moreairfield in Balado, near Kinross. Since it began in 1994 this has grown to a capacity of 85,000. The festival takes place over three days between 10 and 12 July 2009 and will feature more than 120 acts. Camping tickets for 2009 have long sold out, however, there are still tickets available for individual days. 2009 sees the return of the Killers on the main stage and new acts such as Lady Ga Ga and the Script. The mighty Kings of Leon are headlining on the Friday and Seasick Steve will be on the main stage on Sunday. Blur and Snow Patrol will be playing on Sunday also. The atmosphere is always electric with lots of things to see and do. The food stalls are amazing and there is always plenty alcohol to go round. This is a fantastic experience and everyone should try it at least once. Just bring wellies and a mac just in case. Even though it's in the summer, it's still Scottish weather that rules!

While away on a weekend of debauchery with the other half's brass band, I found out that one of his…read morefriends from Uni lived in the area and that we were going to meet up with him for lunch. Right, so I was in charge of finding a place. To be honest, there's not much Yelp help in Perth, but I did find this place, which seemed reasonable (and cheap), and could probably take the six to eight of us who were going to go to lunch. (As the location I tried before was unlikely to be able to fit us all in). The pub is very nice! It seems like it's not really going to be there, but all of a sudden you happen upon it. It's also a pub that does table service. Which is a bit odd, but also kind of nice when you're waiting for people. Four people had pies (fish, steak and ale, and chicken and ham) and they all really seemed to like them. The other half and someone else had the Balmoral chicken (chicken with bacon and haggis), and they both raved about it. I had the tex-mex burger (a chili burger with onion rings, cheese, and a spicy sauce), and I was very impressed with how spicy everything was (one of my pet peeves is seeing "spicy" on the menu and the food not being at all spicy). The pub itself is quite spacious and has an outdoor seating area (if that's your thing, which in November, it's definitely NOT my thing). If we're back up for the band competition next year, we may have to stop in again.

The Twa Tams is one of the many places my love and I went for a pint and a bite to eat while we…read morewere in Perth on holiday. We decided to make a night of it one night, and ordered food and drinks while waiting for a band to play. We were able to book a table and asked to be seated close enough to the stage so that we could enjoy the band. The band of the night was a band called Tunna (pronounced Ton-a) who were a Celtic band. My boyfriend is pretty particular about his music, but we quite enjoyed ourselves, even though we only stayed for half the set. It was a really loud set up, and we decided the next time we make our way to Perth and happen upon this place, we'll ask to be sat a bit farther away. The food was pretty spot on. We ordered some chicken wings to start which were absolutely delicious and it came with the best BBQ sauce I'd ever had. I meant to ask what kind it was, but forgot. For the mains, he ordered a burger with haggis on it, which came with chips and I ordered the gourmet chili dog, without jalapenos which also came with chips. We also ordered onion rings to share, which I thought were pretty gross. They reminded me of the frozen ones you can get out of Morrisons that are basically minced onion in a battered ring. Yick. All in all, the staff was pretty amazing. Very tentative and waited on us at our tables. That's the first time I'd ever been in to a pub and had table service. We had two different people wait on us, and it was pretty great. They had one of my favourite ciders available (spiced apple) and we also had a voucher for a fiver off, just for joining their email on their website. There is an outdoor patio area with loads of seating for eating and drinking. Pretty great once the weather gets a bit warmer! If we're ever in Perth again, I'm sure we'd stop back by Twa Tams! It's great time!

I have passed Brig Farm Shop numerous times on bike rides, convincing myself that I should cycle on…read moreto Perth and remember why I was riding. Well, it was a cold, gusty, rainy January day... the kind of day that isn't suitable for fair-weather riders... so another cycling friend and I decided, basically, we would cave and have lunch here. I had the coronation chicken sandwich with spicy tomato soup. I couldn't have been more pleased. The coronation chicken may have been some of the best I've had in or near Perth. The servers are very friendly and happy to help you decide on which of their tasty menu items you should get. I stayed strong enough to decide not to have one of their baked goods... but I MAY have had one in the past. It was their Malteser bake. And while it may not have been quite as good as Gloagburn's, it was definitely one of the best I've had locally. If you're fortunate enough to visit on a sunny, or at least not rainy, day, then you get lovely views of sheep and/or cows grazing along the River Earn. Totally worth traveling to on a nice day for a nice lunch or baked good with tea or coffee... and maybe take a walk into the village or down by the river.

Delicious food, friendly staff, beautiful scenery and easy access from highway. We are visiting…read morefrom the US and are traveling to Inverness, great stop just outside Edinburgh.

We arrived at the end of the Great Escape with our instruments; we were closing the festival. We'd…read moredid our bit to promote but, naturally, the festival had begun to wind down. The food vendors and stalls had packed up and all that was left was the music stage. We played, and it was probably the quietest point in the day. That was okay for us, but it felt a real shame that we'd been booked for a paying gig that wasn't the busiest. A little chalkboard by the stage listing who was on when would have been really useful, as people most probably thought that the event was already coming to a close as the DJ played before our set. I think there definitely could have been a lot promotion around the event, as unless we were booked, we probably wouldn't have found out about it. There wasn't even a mention on the day from Destination Stirling on Twitter, which when you think about the power of the retweet, is a crying shame. Great that they are supporting local musicians but, next time, shout it from the heavens. - A food and drink festival with music and entertainment is just bound to go down a storm!

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.

Well worth a turned ankle…read more Bungo in the Back Lanes is one of the better Glasgow get togethers. Organised by the Strathbungo community, it has something for everyone. There are Beer gardens which are literally in back gardens, live bands, cake gardens that are open to all, bouncy castles have been placed up alleyways and tombolas are more than prevalent. Based up the back cobbled lanes of this South Side area across from Queen's Park, it has the feel of a proper community fete and it's massive, attracting thousands! There are almost two acres of back lanes to explore and you'll get lost without the handy map on offer. Everyone seems to open up their back gates, set out their stall and sell their wares - whether it's home baking, barbecued burgers, beer, bbq paella, craft goods, face painting, play areas, ice cream, plants or junk from their attics, it's all there. You'll not get anywhere fast though. Trying to navigate from one beer garden to another, or from the pakora man to Mr Thomsons cake garden will take a wee bit of time as you try to evade the throngs of pushchairs struggling up the potholed cobbled lanes. And it's no wonder paramedics are on call with the risk of turning an ankle or two. Well worth it though :-)

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.

Art and very good Art it is…read more You forget these Vaults quite easily on Market Street as they just merge into the city backdrop. They don't get used like this so it's a great way to use a space and i hope it's the start of something special for artists. The musty vaults host a series of arts and entertainment. I fell in love with two particular artist's work - David Martin and Miriam Mallalieu apart from the bit where I almost crapped myself going into Miriam Mallalieu's "Charnel House for Roadkill"!! We went in the daytime so know real entertainment to hear, but to see there were plenty of cool artists!

It's an exhibition - it's a party - it's a wonderland it's…read moreall of these things. And more. Every year Edinburgh's art scene opens the Vaults on Market Street and turn them into a world of its own. Sculpture, Fine Art, film, music, installation art and performances will take hold of you as soon as you step in. You will forget your everyday life for a couple of hours and feel like floating in a creative aquarium. I forgot that I was still in Edinburgh. the tickets at 10- 15 Pounds seem expensive but you'll be able to see several bands and DJ's and judging from their Opening Night yesterday, it's spectacular and I would (and will) happily spend it again. And they are a charitable fund! Oh and if you are too busy at night: the exhibition Vaults are open during the day - for free.

Weird and wonderful and I'm so glad I got to experience this. Make sure you buy your tickets in…read moreadvance and come prepared for a possibly chilly/windy night in the darkness with few places to sit and only a few options for food and drink that will be very busy. There is a rough schedule but there are things going on in multiple places at once and you will end up missing some things, not being able to see some things and that's OK! It's basically a volunteer run event so don't expect a clean and set experience - go in with your perspective open and enjoy! The ground is very uneven and it is very dark so be very careful walking around.

Beltane is genuinely one of the highlights of my year. Not only is it utterly magical, it makes me…read morefeel like the rest of the year is magical too. It's the perfect opportunity to shed the last vestiges of my lingering winter blues before the first true rays of summer. All while on top of a Scottish hill positively wreathed in flame. The dozens upon dozens of folk who volunteer for this event put so much work into everything from the costumes, to the drums, to the performances themselves: It's completely self evident that it's a labour of love. I think that's ultimately what makes Beltane so spectacular. Not just for the retelling of some ancient rite, but for the opportunity to keep that ritual alive and dancing from one year to the next. Often half naked, buck-wild, and hovering a handful of degrees above freezing. If you ever have the opportunity to see the May Queen and the Green Man (along with the Whites, the Reds, the Processional Drummers...), dress up warm, grab a few of your closest friends, and hike up Calton Hill on the last evening of April. If you have even a trace of wonder in your heart, you'll not be disappointed.