CRITICS’ CHOICE
POP
Fleet Foxes
Hard to pick a highlight from this year’s impressive Summer Nights at the Bandstand line-up, especially when reggae legend Jimmy Cliff is due to appear, but Fleet Foxes win out due to being a lesser spotted species over these last few years. The soaring Seattle band with the heavenly harmonies returned from hiatus last year with their exquisite third album Crack Up but expect the hunger at this gig to be for early choral favourites such as Mykonos and White Winter Hymnal. Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow, 7 August, 0141-353 8000
Fiona Shepherd
ART Derek Robertson: Migrations
In his travels as a wildlife artist, Derek Robertson discovered an intriguing thing: that the migrations of birds across the world are mirrored by the movement of refugees. This prompted a year of travelling to Europe’s refugee hotspots, not a few adventures, and a series of beautiful, sensitive paintings which explore elements of the refugee crisis through the wildlife which inhabits the same places. He is one of three invited artists to this year’s Pittenweem Arts Festival, which begins today. Lesser Town Hall, Pittenweem, today until 12 August, 01333 313109
Susan Mansfield
THEATRE
What Girls Are Made Of
For the last decade, Cora Bissett has been one of the most vibrant stars of the Scottish theatre scene, the lifeforce behind remarkable shows like Glasgow Girls and last year’s Traverse smash-hit Adam. Now, though, she turns her attention to her own life story, in a “recollection with songs” of her teenage career as lead singer with Fife indie band Darlingheart, who briefly toured with the likes of Radiohead and Blur. Traverse artistic director Orla O’loughlin directs a show that features Bissett alongside a live band, and asks whether today’s fortysomething generation, in turn, has to let its daughters make their own glorious mistakes. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until 26 August, 0131-228 1404
Joyce Mcmillan
CLASSICAL Nicola Benedetti & Academy of Ancient Music
What a whopper to start the Edinburgh International Festival’s morning concert series at the Queen’s Hall. Nicola Benedetti teams up with the impish Richard Egarr and his Academy of Ancient music for a Baroque feast. Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 4 August, 0131-473 2000
Ken Walton