Edinburgh Festivals - Day 4

Where was the rain?

All prepared for the worst with macs, umbrellas and stout shoes but another (quite) nice day in Edinburgh. Even sat out in the full sun in Grassmarket for lunch!

Two highlights from today:

• Tony Hadoke’s passion for the BBC and its legacy of memorabilia ranging from Grange Hill to Howards’ Way (Yes the apostrophe is in the correct place) which ended as a tongue-lashing rant against those who dare to commercialise it. Looking forward to his visit to Corsham in our next season

• A highly believable Grant Smeaton as Bette Davis in the superb Bette/Cavett show at The Zoo - a fascinating verbatim recreation of the famous 1970s US chat show in which Bette Davis was asked how she lost her virginity.

Meanwhile out in the streets the whirlwind of Edinburgh continues to fascinate, delight, puzzle and confuse us all in it uncontrollable frenzy...

Edinburgh Festivals - Day 3

It’s day 4 and I’m already trying to catch up with day 3! Fortunately, it’s amazing how much quieter Edinburgh is after the weekend. The queues have dispersed, the litter is slowly being cleared and most of the shows we wanted to see are having a day off!

Ah yes, but that doesn’t mean a lazy start to the day as we had the first of two frantic networking sessions to deal with yesterday:

• The first was staged by Visiting Arts and after a presentation by EIF director Jonathan Mills on the subject of the arts and climate change and the arts consisted of a panel of artists from five continents giving their individual responses to the challenge

• Later in the day was the Made in Scotland reception at the lovely Balmoral Hotel. Made in Scotland is a fantastic showcase of new work produced in Scotland and is a brave attempt to put Scottish Arts firmly on the International stage. Backing the initiative is the newly formed Creative Scotland – a merger of the Scottish Arts and Film Councils – a possible model of what might have been possible in England maybe?

Edinburgh Festivals - Day 2

Edinburgh has a habit of throwing the most unexpected weather at you and today was no exception with temperatures of 22 degrees, cloudless skies and views from the top of Carlton Hill to die for. It almost seemed criminal to go indoors for the shows.

Nevertheless the day started with the frenetic bun fight which is the Promoter's (or is it the Producer's) networking breakfast. It's a great chance to meet some interesting people who have shows they are desperate to get people like us along to see - and to meet a few old favourites too such as Ines Wurth who has brought some great new shows to Edinburgh this year.

Saw some good shows too - see the tweets opposite for instant reviews. Two very different highlights today (so far) include Kev Orvian's hugely entertaining 'The Illegal Tour' about an Armenian Immigrant musician and Martin Creed's inspirational and unified exhibition 'Down Over Up' at The Fruitmarket Gallery - one of my favourite spaces. The Edinburgh Art Festival has some great looking exhibitions on this week and I hope to see as many as I can this week.

Edinburgh Festivals – Day 1

Amazingly this is my 12^th year of Edinburgh Festivals and despite all the predictions of it having outgrown its own boots it is back with an even bigger line up with a staggering 2500 shows. It has proved to be a great source of innovative, quality and cutting edge arts which we frequently programme as part of our work at Pound Arts and I am hopeful that this year will be no exception.

It was a desperately early 5am start this morning from Bath but we were in our first show by 11am. See my twitters (opposite) or those of my partner ianjmartin for up to date brief reviews of what we see.

I hope to see some great new work this year, some inspirational visual arts, and some challenging and thought provoking physical dance and theatre. But above all it is the city itself which never fails to impress me. The wonderful buildings, bold architecture and a pulse which never ceases - that is what Edinburgh Festival are all about.

In addition to my show and event tweets I will try to keep up a daily blog. Today comes from the cafe at the Underbelly – one of the most extraordinary (and smelly) venues. Despite the early start I am hoping for a second wind as I have several shows left tonight!

Corsham Almshouses saved - for now!

Wiltshire Council's planning meeting last night was livelier than usual with controversial plans for building nine single person's flats in the grounds of this grade 1 listed building on the agenda.

I spoke representing Corsham Town Council's unanimous recommendation for refusal of this this proposal and reminding the committee that this was backed up by overwhelming local opposition which demonstrated very strongly that this proposal is inappropriate.

As expected the meeting was packed with the good folk of Corsham (including a good few hecklers!). The debate lasted over an hour and a resolution was eventually proposed to reject the application which was carried by 6 votes to 3 (with one abstention).

So that is the end of round one! But I suspect this is not the end. The trustees may appeal - or submit an amended plan. But this must be costing them an enormous amount of money and questions may be asked as to whether this is an appropriate use of the charity's funds.

It was good to see how local opinion can make a difference - particularly when it is so strong, so vociferous and overwhelming that to override those views would be ill judged and a smack in the face of local democracy.