Leith to host ‘festival-within-a-festival’ celebrating the best of Scottish pop

Pop/rock/folk Fiona Shepherd

ith the exception of Playhouse concerts by two influential North American musicians – the acid-tongued, velvetvoiced baritone crooner John Grant and the quirky, audacious pop stylist and demon guitarist St Vincent, this year’s contemporary music programme looks entirely to Leith.

Light on the Shore is a festival-within-a-festival, programmed to coincide with the National Museum of Scotland’s summer exhibition Rip It Up: The Story Of Scottish Pop and, as such, celebrates the best of contemporary Scottish music, bringing rock, pop, folk and electronica talent from across Scotland to the atmospheric faded grandeur of the recently reactivated Leith Theatre.

Highlights include composer Anna Meredith, fresh from scoring the EIF opening event Five Telegrams, performing her Scottish Album of the Year Award-winning Varmints in collaboration with the Southbank Sinfonia.

There are contrasting orchestral approaches from stargaze, an ensemble of European musicians who will perform their arrangements of the music of Edinburgh electronica duo Boards of Canada, and the irrepressible Grit Orchestra, who reprise their flagship Celtic Connections concert, Bothy Culture and Beyond, celebrating the trailblazing Celtic fusion music of the late piper Martyn Bennett with a massed gathering of Scotland’s finest classical, folk and jazz players. Not to be missed.

Ear-bleeding sonic architects Mogwai, indie folk supremo King Creosote and folk singer and storyteller Karine Polwart all return to the EIF as part of Light on the Shore, while folk trio Lau and innovative Edinburgh promoters Hidden Door and Neu! Reekie! curate their own shindigs as part of the celebratory proceedings.