Brian Ferguson’s diary
If the return of the festivals has been a joy this year, there’s been extra cause for celebration with the return of the Film Festival to the August fold after a hiatus of more than a decade. Diaries were cleared by movers and shakers across the festivals for its big opening and closing parties, at the National Museum and Dynamic Earth respectively.
After watching the closing gala screening of After Yang, a bumper crowd flocked to the scientific attraction where guests could learn all about the evolution of the planet in between catching up with festival chums. Live visual art, dance displays and Chinese snacks were among the attractions – but the biggest queue was for the tea leaf readings.
ALTHOUGH his presence was never confirmed, there was maybe some disappointment about Colin Farrell’s absence from the After Yang gala. American actor Justin H Min, who plays the robotic child in the film, did make it. He told the audience: “Hi everyone, it’s me, Colin Farrell. I do realise I do look a little different,” adding: “Colin would love to have been here, but he’s still taking off the prosthetics from the Batman movie.”
A MEASURE of how much has changed in Edinburgh since the dark days of Covid restrictions is that Professor Devi Sridhar, one of Scotland’s leading experts on the pandemic, is not only appearing before packed audiences herself, but crowd-sourcing tips on Twitter for shows to attend.
Among the recommendations was Jim Campbell’s close-up magic show at the Pleasance Courtyard. He has been a familiar face there for more than a decade after initially winning over the venue staff with his impromptu tricks, then getting permission to go around its tables entertaining festivalgoers.
Campbell, who now has “resident magician” status at the courtyard, says: “When I was in my early twenties, me and a friend were trying to cobble together enough change to get a half-pint each. Suddenly, a gentleman who had clearly been watching us, leant over and handed us a £20 note, saying he had had a good night, and insisted that we took it.”
AN EPIC love story is being recalled at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, where Maria Macdonell’s show Miss Lindsay’s Secret is based on the discovery of a reallife collection of intimate love letters found behind a cabinet in the Glenesk Folk Museum in Angus.
Billed as a true story of “sewing and 1900s sexting”, it explores the long-distance relationship between Minnie Lindsay and her childhood sweetheart Alexander Middleton, who emigrated to Canada at the height of the Klondike gold rush.
One young man in the audience told Macdonell the show had made him make up his own mind to relocate to Vancouver after seven years in a long-term relationship. She said: “His eyes were glistening. I told him, ‘Take care of that love.’”