Saturday in Edinburgh – What’s On Today

Big Ears, Little Ears Family Concerts with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra: two very special family concerts with a small ensemble from the SCO, for parents and their young babies  or toddlers in a ‘tut-free, child-friendly zone’ where you can ‘relax and share the enjoyment and pleasure of a fabulous live music experience’. 10.30am (for babies up to 12 months) or 11.45am (for ages 1-4 years), Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen Street. Free but booking is required via the SCO website here. A maximum of two adults is allowed per child: if you have a baby and a toddler, you are advised to opt for the 11.45am concert.

Excelsior Per Cantum: The Great British Folk Song. The chamber choir of Heriot-Watt University perform an evening of songs from all the corners of Britain in the unique, candlelit setting of the Rosslyn Chapel. 7.30pm (doors open 7pm), Rosslyn Chapel, Chapel Loan, Roslin. The concert will last about one hour and will be followed by drinks. Tickets cost £10/£8/£7 and can be booked via the Rosslyn Chapel website here. All proceeds are being donated by the choir to the Rosslyn Chapel Trust education programme.

The Story Kist: Inclusive Storytelling. Stories of the wild woods – who will we meet if we go down to the woods today? Come and enjoy some multi-sensory stories, songs and adventures with storytelllers Allie Finlay and Marie Louise Cochrane. Intriguing props and puppets! Lots of fun for everyone, but particularly for children with additional needs, their families, friends and carers. 11am, Storytelling Bothy, Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street. Tickets cost £5 per child and can be booked online here or by calling the Box Office on 0131 556 9579; don’t forget to book a free ticket for yourself too.

St John’s Art Exhibition: local artists combine their talents. Opening party tonight with refreshments and raffle (the prize is this painting, raffle to be drawn on Sunday), 6.30-9pm, St John’s Church, Princes Street.

Holy Corner Community Playgroup Fundraising Family Ceilidh: live music, home baking, cafe, photo booth, lucky dip, face painting, raffle and lots more! 2-4pm, Polwarth Parish Church, 36 Polwarth Terrace. Tickets cost £5 on the door, under-2s free. For further information contact anna@momedia.co.uk.

Edinburgh University Shakespeare Company Presents The Merchant of Venice: it is the summer of 1939 and Britain is travelling headlong towards one of the most devastating and transformative periods of its history. Oblivious to the oncoming storm, the London elite sit smoking their cigars and enjoying the fruits of their inheritance. 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Assembly Roxy, 2 Roxburgh Place. Tickets cost £10/£8/£6 and can be purchased online here.

LGBT Women’s Group: Sugar and Spice. An inclusive group that offers the chance to meet other LGBT women in a relaxed environment; chat, information and activities promoting health and wellbeing. The group is open to all LGBT women, and welcomes transgender people who identify primarily as women. Today: meet at Out of the Blue  for an opportunity to buy brunch and listen to local music performers. (Optional weather-dependent walk to the Water of Leith 2-2.30pm). 11.30am-2pm Out of the Blue, Dalmeny Street. For more information and to add your name to the group’s mailing list, contact Alison Wren at alison@lgbthealth.org.uk or call 0131 652 3283.

St Bride’s Family Cinema: see your favourite films for free! Adventure, excitement, fun and laughs – it’s all here. Choc ices and juice available during the interval for 50p each. This week: The Iron Giant (U), next week: Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (U). All children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. 10.30am-12.30pm (including interval), St Bride’s Centre, Orwell Terrace, Dalry.

Lunchtime Concert: Miskelly Chorale, Comber, County Down. 12.15pm, St Giles’ Cathedral, High Street. Free.

Drumbrae Library Hub CoderDojo: with a special guest mentor, Yann Seznec of BAFTA award-winning Luckyframe Software. Yann will inspire attendees with his out-of-the-box thinking to create wild game ides that’ll blow your mind. Yann will be joining the Dojo for a number of sessions so you will be able to develop your concepts into fully interactive experiences. For ages 10-16. 2-4pm today then fortnightly, Drumbrae Library Hub, 81 Drumbrae Drive.

Fischy Music: a fun-filled sing-along concert of old and new songs. Children must be accompanied by an adult. 2-3pm, Cluny Centre, 1 Cluny Drive. £5 per child, accompanying adults free. This event is hosted by Morningside and Greenbank Parish Churches. For more information or to book, call 0131 447 9969 or visit greenbankchurch.org.

Balerno Tattie Day (rescheduled): a huge variety of seed potatoes, onions and peas for sale, activities for children (seed planting, arts & crafts) and a visit from Fresh Revolution, who will cook up some delicious tattie recipes in their van outside the halls. Advice for beginners, top tips from experienced growers – and if you haven’t got a garden, they’ll show you how to grow potatoes in a sack! The Mill Cafe will serve hot drinks and home baking, and the Balerno Farmers’ Market will run alongside in Main Street. Tattie Day is part of Balerno Village Trust’s Sustain Balerno project and is supported by the Scottish Government’s Community Food Fund to promote local food and drink. 9.30am-1pm, Balerno Parish Church Halls, 2 Main Street.

Nothing But The Poem: WB Yeats. A poetry reading and discussion session with poet Kate Hendry. No previous knowledge or experience necessary! 11am or 2pm (both sessions will feature the same material), The Saltire Society, 9 Fountain Close. Tickets cost £5/£4 and can be booked via eventbrite here. For further information contact jennifer.williams@spl.org.uk.

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People Fundraising Ceilidh with the Robert Fish Band: 8pm (doors open 7.30pm)-12 midnight, St Bride’s Centre, Orwell Terrace, Dalry. Tickets cost £10 and are available from St Bride’s on 0131 555 7668 or cld-stbrides@ea.edin.sch.uk.

Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2015: a festival of all things wooly and related to yarn, knitting, weaving, crochet, spinning and felting. A market place with 100+ vendors (including some who have never been seen in Scotland before), plus 32 classes and workshops from some of the finest teachers the international knitting industry and designer scene has to offer – and a host of other attractions – even a Yarn Cafe! 10am-5.30pm today and 10am-5pm tomorrow, Edinburgh Corn Exchange, New Market Road. Tickets cost £8 per day or £12 for the weekend. Workshops are not included and must be booked and paid for separately. There is also a special evening party tonight from 6.30pm; separate tickets are required for this: see website for all ticket details and to book  in advance; it will be possible to buy tickets on the door, but with cash only.

Italian Film Festival: curated by Allan Hunter and Richard Mowe, the 22nd Festival continues today. ‘An exciting and diverse line-up of contemporary and classic Italian cinema, including hilarious comedies, insightful dramas, seat-edge thrillers and classics from award-winning directors’. All films are subtitled in English, Today: Leopardi (15) ‘Poet, philosopher and philologist Giacomo Leopardi remains one of Italy’s greatest literary figures, and Mario Martone’s biography offers us a darkly insightful portrait.’ 8.35pm, Filmhouse, Lothian Road. Tickets can be booked online via the website or by calling the Box Office on 0131 228 2688.

Bookbug: for children aged 0-4 and their parents and carers. 11.30am today and every Saturday, Portobello Library, 14 Rosefield Avenue. These sessions are very popular, please arrive early. There are also sessions at 10.15am and 11.15am every Wednesday.

The Torrance Gallery: Spring Exhibition. Over 60 gallery artists, with jewellery by Sheana Stephen. 11am-6pm Monday to Friday, 10.30am-4pm Saturdays, The Torrance Gallery, 36 Dundas Street. Sheana Stephen will be in attendance at the Gallery 6-8pm on Friday 4th April and 11am-1pm on Saturday 5th April.

Bruncheon – Featuring The Sound of Muesli: local musical talent and DJs create a chilled-out atmosphere, whilst the Drill Hall Arts Cafe offers delicious home-made food – kippers, morning rolls and sweet treats aplenty! 11.30am-3pm, Out of the Blue Drill Hall, 36 Dalmeny Street, Leith. Free admission.

Where Language Ends: Ross Birrell and David Harding. An exhibition celebrating the importance of symbolic labour and the possibility of transcending a purely material reality; spectacular coloured window installations, sculptural objects, prints and multi-media works in which music emerges as a redemptive force; a force never far from brutality and violence.. In many works the virtuosity of a musical performance is captured, whilst allusions to the musicians’ backgrounds highlight dangerous social and political circumstances, with poignant references to those in exile, poets and musicians writing from the margins to generate new worlds and modes of being. Ross Birrell and David Harding are artists based in Glasgow. Preview 12.30pm today, then 10am-5pm Monday to Friday, 12 noon-5pm Saturdays, Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh, Old College. The preview will be preceded at 11am by a talk by Ross Birrell and David Harding; free tickets can be booked via eventbrite here. Exhibition ends 2nd May 2015: admission is free.

Spotlight on Eric Lomax, Railway Man of War and Peace. President of the Stephenson Locomotive Society Dr Michael Bailey tells the story of Eric Lomax, whose photographs form a remarkable archive of pre-war Scottish railways. Eric’s autobiography, The Railway Man, now a feature film, tells the story of his incarceration during the Second World War and subsequent bouts of combat stress. For ages 14+. 2-3.30pm (doors open 1.45pm), Auditorium, Level One, National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street. Free but booking is required and may be made online here or by calling in to NMS’s reception desk.

St John’s Lent Lectures – discussing practical Christianity. Today: Christian Ethics with The Rt Rev Dr Alan Wilson (Bishop of Buckingham). The lecture will be followed by discussion and refreshments. 10am-12 noon, St John’s Church Hall, Princes Street. To register please email stephen.holmes@stjohns-edinburgh.org.uk.

POSTPONED UNTIL JUNE: Palestine Double Bill @ Area C: Edinburgh-based singing group San Ghanny visited the West Bank in 2012 to sing in solidarity with people in Palestine. Since returning to Scotland, San Ghanny has shared through songs and stories the accounts and experiences heard and seen during the visit. Followed by a screening of Over the Wall, the true story of the journey of a team of young footballers who are transformed by the events they witness in the Middle East. 7pm (San Ghanny), 8.15pm (Over the Wall), Area C Coffee House, 239-241 Leith Walk. All welcome.

Portobello Open Door: What We Did On Our Holiday (12A). 7pm, The Wash House Community Centre, 3 Adelphi Grove. Tickets cost £5/£3 and can be purchased from Popeye’s Sandwich Bar, 132 Portobello High Steet. Please note under 12s must be accompanied by an adult. Bring your own bean bag, food and drink.

Saturday Sessions featuring The Whole Shebang: 8-piece bluegrass collective performing a wide range of material, from the 1930s to the 2000s. 2pm, Sofi’s Bar, 65 Henderson Street.

Balerno Village Screen: Pride (15). Summer 1984: Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is on strike. At the Gay Pride march in London, a group of gay and lesbian activists decides to raise money to support the families of striking miners – but at first some members of the Union seems embarrassed to accept this support. Read The Edinburgh Reporter’s Top 5 films of 2014 – of which Pride was No. 3 – here. 7.30-9.30pm, St Joseph’s Hall, Main Street, Balerno. Advance booking is preferred to enable BVS to manage numbers: tickets are available from Balerno Post Office and The Mill Cafe in the St Joseph’s Centre, or via eventbrite here. Balerno Village Screen is a community cinema funded by donations. Tickets for all films are free.