The Edinburgh Minute ⏰: Weekend edition 8-10 March 2024
Braid Road to reopen, festival unveiled, tourist tax verdict, free coffee, IWD events + your weekend guide including Balkanarama & Supper Club
🌤️ Good morning Edinburgh. Here’s Friday’s Edinburgh Minute followed by the weekend guide for paying subscribers.
🚧 I’ve found two headlines this morning that at first seem to contradict each other. But they do in fact both accurately cover what happened at yesterday’s council transport meeting:
🚲 ‘Edinburgh schoolboy Thomas Wong: Councillors vow to do all they can to prevent repeat of fatal crash’ - Ian Swanson, Evening News.
⮑ ‘Edinburgh traffic: Planters in Morningside's Braid estate to go despite pleas over safety’ - Ian Swanson, Evening News.
"Voting to remove modal filters, which are the safest option, is knowingly putting the interests of motorists ahead of children's right to life. We sincerely hope no more children will die on Edinburgh’s roads while councillors play political games." - A deputation from Blackford Safe Routes to School campaign. (website/Twitter)
⮑ Councillor Ben Parker said he was ‘stunned and devastated’ by what he called ‘the most tragic decision the council has made since I was elected’. In response, council transport leader Scott Arthur said:
“The Committee opted to listen to local residents and replace the existing modal filters (planters or other barrier) with a fully segregated cycle route through the area along Hermitage Drive and Braid Avenue (a common cycling route), with safety improvements for pedestrians and cyclists at junctions.”
⮑ There’s more on this story in today’s Evening News.
🎭 The Edinburgh International Festival announced its 2024 programme, including its ‘most generous ticket discount offer ever’. - See the full programme here.
⮑ ‘More than half of the tickets will cost £30 or less, with £10 tickets on offer for every performance, while 2,000 free tickets will be distributed to young people’, reports Severin Carrell in The Guardian.
⮑ The festival shared 13 highlights from this year’s EIF programme.
⮑ Festival director Nicola Benedetti says she has been ‘inundated with advice about motherhood after revealing she is due to give birth months before this year’s event’, reports Brian Ferguson in The Scotsman. - They have a video interview here.
⮑ Critics Joyce McMillan, Ken Walton, Kelly Apter and Fiona Shepherd assess the festival’s theatre, classical music, dance and music.
⮑ ‘The many community strands throughout the programme, and ways of bringing audiences closer to artists’ are covered here by The Edinburgh Reporter.
⮑ BBC Scotland arts correspondent Pauline McLean summarises the festival programme launch here.
🏠 Locals are invited to a Leith Vision Day drop-in event on Saturday at Leith Dockers Club. “We think that local people, not multi million pound companies, should decide what our communities look like! So as part of our campaign against the development of student accommodation on Dalton scrapyard Living Rent Leith are hosting a vision day for locals to discuss and create ideas about what we as local want Leith to like!” - More details via tenants and community union Living Rent.
🍷 The owner of Stockbridge wine shop Smith & Gertrude has shared a petition after eight new bins appeared directly in front of their shop. Amy Findlater told the Minute:
‘We are on board with what the council are trying to achieve, it’s just baffling the way they are going about trying to achieve it. I.e. working against local businesses and residents as opposed to with them. These eight bins will have a definite detrimental impact to our small business. And at a time when hospitality businesses are really struggling it’s even more worrying.’
☕️ Brougham Place cafe BEATNIK is giving away 200 free flat whites from 8am this morning. Owners Jemma and Saf are showcasing their new partnership with Real Oat Arts, a Dutch oat m*lk brand. - More details in this post.
💰 The majority of people who responded to a ‘tourist tax’ survey in Edinburgh opted for a levy of up to £5 on a £100 room, reports Brian Donnelly in The Herald. The full research results will be published for a council meeting next week.
⚽️ Plans for a mile-long trail to celebrate Heart of Midlothian Football Club’s 150th anniversary have been backed by lottery funding. The Maroon Mile project will be created with local community groups between now and October 2025. - Nigel Duncan, The Edinburgh Reporter.
📚 TV presenter Andi Peters was in town yesterday as Lorraine Kelly and Good Morning Britain were hosted from Edinburgh Uni’s Old College quad where they were highlighting the ‘One Day’ book and series.
🗳️ ‘The thread about 122 years of local political change in Edinburgh; from Moderates and Progressives to Communists and Protestants.’ - Edinburgh history expert Andy Arthur’s latest deep-dive is live on Threadinburgh.
🎶 EHFM celebrates International Women’s Day today with 24 locals each taking over for 30-min sets on air throughout the day. - Tune in here.
🎤 In Portobello, author Briana Pegado is the special guest at Tribe Porty this evening from 7pm.
🚴♀️ Also marking IWD, the InfraSisters cycle safety campaign group is inviting everyone to join them for a night-time cycle on Friday, starting at 7.30pm from Middle Meadow Walk.
⮑ The ride will finish at The Causey junction in Newington for a new projection-mapping community art project light show. The multimedia project is ‘inspired by active travel and reclaiming urban spaces for pedestrian use.’ - The Causey.
“Our Streets will see stunning projections pick out some of the iconic local architecture, alongside a bespoke soundscape. It is a multimedia project that supports Active Travel and is about reclaiming urban spaces for pedestrian use. Award winning artists -Marta Adamowicz and Robert Motyka (Beetroots Collective CIC) present the event in association with Causey Development Trust.”
🍺 The women of Bellfield Brewery created their fifth annual batch for International Women’s Day. ‘Rational Creatures IPA’ is available from bars across town today including Lioness of Leith today. - Read more about the tap takeover here.
“It’s brewed with a combination of seven hops and seven malts as a homage to the Edinburgh Seven the group of pioneering women who were the first to (eventually) graduate through Edinburgh University which had a ‘men only’ rule at that time.”
📌 Edinburgh Minute Community Noticeboard
⮑ Get in touch using this form.
📌 "Repair Café Edinburgh is running an event at The Ripple, Restalrig, this Saturday - our volunteers will be on hand to help you to repair your broken electrical, electronic and mechanical devices such as toys, small / low-voltage electricals, laptops, clothing and fabrics… we’ll also have experts to help with bicycles. Please contact us at repaircafeedinburgh@gmail.com to confirm suitability and to reserve your place, or just turn up on the day and we’ll try to take a look.”
📌 All are welcome at The Bike Station’s free family group ride for International Women's Day, in partnership with City of Edinburgh Council, on Saturday from 10am. - More details here.
📌 “As Age Scotland discovers millions in unclaimed benefits as reported by Phyllis Stephen in the Edinburgh Reporter, their food and drink writer, Kerry Teakle shares some useful tips on navigating the challenges of ageing parents.”