- Virgin Money Fireworks Concert
- Cycling is on the agenda
- Pleasance raise almost £50,000 for Waverley Care
- Pop up at Leith Walk Police Box
- Cressida the Tidal Octopus is back!
Tonight’s the night! The Virgin Money Fireworks Concert takes place tonight beginning at 9.30pm. This year the pyrotechnics will be accompanied by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra who will play specially arranged versions of Prokofiev’s vibrant ballet music for Romeo and Juliet which takes in the swaggering machismo of the ‘Dance of the Knights’, known to millions as the theme from The Apprentice, as well as the rousing ‘Morning Dance’ and dramatic ‘The Fight’.
The Symphonic Dances from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story feature some of the composer’s most memorable music from his landmark Romeo and Juliet-inspired musical; flamboyant, catchy and unutterably cool, accompanied by a glittering display of pyrotechnics from the Edinburgh Castle ramparts. The concert concludes with the pomp and exuberance of Shostakovich’s joyful Festive Overture.
These pieces of music celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.
The places to view the fireworks are numerous but there is Princes Street Gardens although you need a ticket to get in. There are three entrances : One on Princes Street by St John’s Church, on King’s Stables Road and one on Princes Street by the Floral Clock.
You can listen to the music live on Forth One 97.3FM, and by 22.15 the whole thing (and this year’s Festival!) will be over.
Down at Inverleith Park on a clear night you will get a good view up to the Castle with all the fireworks lighting the sky but perhaps without the immediate body blows that you might feel if you are close by. This is a good family viewing area if you have small children.
If you have accessibility queries then you can find out more here.
Earlier today at 11 o’clock schoolchildren from across Edinburgh will listen to SCO VIBE a fusion orchestra open to young musicians between 11-18 years old who will play for them.
This morning The Edinburgh Reporter is off to join a cycle run at 8am starting from Charlotte Square and going out to Roseburn. This is ahead of the council’s decision tomorrow on two alternative cycling models for the West to East cycle link following a council consultation.
Ride the Route is advocating Option A as the best route for the council to adopt. This is the one which council officers appear to favour saying in the report that this route which travels along Roseburn Terrace via Roseburn Gardens ‘provides the most direct and convenient cycle route and improves the street environment’. They also say that Option A is favoured over Option B as it will offer continuous cycleway on the north side of Roseburn Terrace delivering a bigger change in what is currently a traffic-dominated street.
Whether it should go through Roseburn or find a route behind the shops at the narrowing of the road just before Murrayfield Avenue is up for decision. There has been much debate about the options and we hope to bring you some news later today to clarify what both sides think.
The report is to be considered by the council’s Transport committee when it meets tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile Edinburgh residents and traders who are against the cycling changes will undertake an ‘Arms Folded’ campaign as a show of counterdemonstration. They will be outside Eat’n’Joy on Roseburn Terrace at about 8.20. They say that they will explain to cyclists why the scheme will not work. The demonstrators have petitioned the council to stop the cycling scheme. You can read about that here.
The Fringe has been declared a huge success at Pleasance across its various sites. There were 5032 performances of 250 shows in 27 venues. Ticket sales were up marginally on last year and of these around 30,000 tickets were sold for children’s shows.
One Year Lease’s play Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally won an award from The Stage. We interviewed the director and the writer and here is a little clip for you:
A go see at the Fringe! @ThePleasance @OYLTheaterCo #AuntSally New York Times Critics Pick 2015 pic.twitter.com/Zu6tJyuY2K
— Edinburgh Reporter (@EdinReporter) August 20, 2016
The venue also raised £47,976 for Waverley Care through the Tartain Ribbon Comedy Benefit and text donations made during Eurobeat. That means that over 25 years the charity has benefited from £423,000 of fundraising.
This was probably one of the best photo calls during the Festival! We all went up Calton Hill one morning…..
Lovely day to start with a photo call on top of Calton Hill! With @SusanCalman @ThePleasance @WaverleyCare pic.twitter.com/VrERfQeWo2
— Edinburgh Reporter (@EdinReporter) August 15, 2016
Fancy colouring in your own T-shirt?
Crafta La Vista make them for colouring in by children and adults. Next Saturday 3 September they will be popping up on Leith Walk at the police box there to sell clothes for children.
Nicole Evry from Leith based Crafta La Vista said: ” All the clothes are based around helping families have fun together and come in a stylish gift box making it a great present for your special little person.”
Find out more here.
Cressida the Tidal Octopus is back on Portobello Beach!
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
