Five things you need to know today Edinburgh

Ryanair

Hydrospin is the new fitness routine

Stockbridge Festival Vintage and Craft Market

Potty in Portobello

Festival Fireworks

The Edinburgh Reporter is off to meet the colourful Michael O’Leary today to see what he might have to say about anticipated news of flights to new destinations. Ryanair have already rolled out a new website which is more user friendly and which remembers you from one time to the next. Contrary to reports O’Leary did not impose a charge on using the bathrooms on planes, nor has he yet introduced standing only seats on shorter routes, but we are ready for anything!

***

Edinburgh Leisure have set up a new way of keeping fit at the Royal Commonwealth Pool. Here’s a preview:

[vimeo 104092680 w=500 h=281]

***

The Stockbridge Festival Vintage and Craft Market SATURDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2014 11AM TO 4PM
Jubilee Gardens, Saunders Street, Stockbridge

You are invited to take a stall at this fun event.
Sell craft items, clothes, bric a brac, jewellery, vintage.
Cost to stall-holders will be £35 per table.

For more info about the market and to book a stall contact: vjglynn@gmail.com
StockFest reserves the right to decline applications as it determines.
For more info about Stockbridge Festival contact: http://facebook.com/stockfest

***

Portobello residents could help archaeologists uncover the area’s pottery industry. This weekend Dig Portobello will encourage the digging of small trenches to examine potteries which used to be a central part of Porty industry. If you live in Portobello then have a closer look in your own back garden to see what you can find.

You are encouraged to sign up and dig a small trench no more than 1m x 2m in size in their gardens, with the guidance of professional archaeologists. Those without gardens or people from outside the area can also take part, as the council has given permission for test pits to be dug on selected areas of council-owned land.

A range of activities will take place over the weekend, all based at or starting from The Wash House Community Centre on Adelphi Grove. Volunteers of all abilities are encouraged to sign up for free geophysical survey training on Friday 29 August at 12pm and an introductory talk at 7:30pm. The archaeological explorations will take place from 10am on Saturday 30 August–Sunday 31 August.

The project will also provide guided walks around Portobello and a range of drop-in workshops, including sessions on ceramics, artefacts, and ‘Wee Pottery Workshops’ for children. The full timetable and information on how to sign up can be found at AOC Archaeology .

To sign up for the geophysical survey training, to take part in the excavations, or to register your children, please contact the Portobello Heritage Trust with details of which days you would like to participate. Please specify whether you are digging in your own garden, and please let them know of the address.

Contact Margaret Munro of the Portobello Heritage Trust on 0131 657 2866 or munroporto(at)hotmail.com

***

This year’s fireworks take place on Sunday evening. Starting at 9pm the Virgin Money Fireworks Concert will bring Edinburgh’s summer festival season to a close. This spectacular night out ends the 2014 Edinburgh International Festival, with over 4 tonnes of explosives and 400,000 fireworks choreographed to live orchestral music lighting up the sky against the iconic backdrop of Edinburgh Castle, in what is the largest annual fireworks concert in the world.

Share your fireworks photos with us here on EdinburghReportage. We would love to see the whizzy rockets aloft above the Castle or the Waterfall tumbling down the Castle Rock.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Garry Walker performs classic favourites including Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries and Tchaikovsky’s1812 Overture, accompanied by an awe-inspiring display created by international firework artists Pyrovision, headed by Keith Webb.

The Fireworks Concert is one of Edinburgh’s favourite annual events, bringing together families, visitors, and communities from across the city and beyond, in the grand finale to Edinburgh’s summer festival season. Around 250,000 people are expected to watch the spectacle, gathered in official viewing areas in Princes Street Gardens and at the family viewing area at Inverleith Park, as well as at vantage points around Edinburgh, Fife and the Lothians.

This is the 32^nd annual end of Festival Fireworks Concert; the first was held in 1982. The display is designed, built and coordinated by fireworks experts Pyrovision, lead by head designer Keith Webb. Keith has worked on every fireworks display in some capacity since 1984, this being his 30^thyear. It takes a team of 15 pyrotechnicians 7 days to lay out the fireworks at Edinburgh Castle. Fireworks are set up on 17 different levels of Edinburgh Castle, from the ramparts to along the top of the Castle rock. In addition to the four tonnes of explosives and hundreds of thousands of fireworks used during the 45 minute concert, 12 tonnes of kit are also deployed.

The hugely popular fireworks ‘Waterfall’ is laid out over 118 feet and descends 131 feet in 1 minute. The elements of the Waterfall take two days to make in the manufacturers factory, 2 days additional work at Pyrovision’s headquarters in Lincolnshire, and half a day to layout at the Castle. The cabling for the Waterfall takes a further half a day to set at the Castle. The Waterfall consists of 70 firing units laid out for 118 feet (36 metres) across the Castle. Lasting 1 minute the display descends 131 feet (40 metres) down the Castle rock. Coarse aluminium flakes cause the fireworks to descend, fine aluminium flakes gives the display its beautiful silver/whiteness. In 2013, the display featured two Waterfalls for the first time, a longer secondary waterfall outlining the edge of the Castle ramparts alongside the traditional one.

This year, 55 musicians from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra will perform in the Fireworks Concert, with Gary Walker conducting Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Mendelssohn’s War March of the Priests from Athalie, Debussy’s Marche Écossaise and Tchaikovsky’s1812 Overture. The orchestra features 55 players on stage, including 14 violins, 5 horns, 4 cellos, 3 flutes, 2 bassoons, and 1 harp. Each year Keith Webb and his team carefully choreograph the fireworks to work with the chosen music. Keith uses the music as direct inspiration for the effects created, and the ‘images’ it conjures up for him.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBvXYJAE_JQ]

Visit http://www.eif.co.uk/virginmoneyfireworks for up-to-the-minute news, features and advice on how to make the best of an evening the Virgin Money Fireworks Concert. Tickets to watch the event from Princes St Gardens are still available via Hub Tickets. They can be bought in person at the Hub, by phone on 0131 473 2000, or online at www.eif.co.uk. The family viewing area at Inverleith Park is free to enter from 7pm and features a live big-screen relay of the concert from Princes St Gardens.

Virgin Money Fireworks Concert

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Garry Walker Conductor

Wagner Ride of the Valkyries

Beethoven Egmont Overture

Mendelssohn War March of the Priests from Athalie

Debussy Marche Écossaise

Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture

Sunday 31 August 9.00pm

eif.co.uk/virginmoneyfireworks