Men sing to praise the Lord

A Festival of Male Voice Praise will be held in Harper Memorial Baptist Church in Craigiehall Street, Kinning Park, Glasgow G51 1 EU on Saturday 19 May 2012 starting at 6.45pm.

Guests will include Ministry in Song with accompanist Heather Moffat. The speaker will be Garry Blair.

Part of an international Christian praise festival, the evening is free but a collection will be taken for missionary work.

Canal Festival launches

 

KIRKINTILLOCH CANAL FESTIVAL

Monday 22 – Sunday 28 August 2011

A great event with lots of activities for all ages.

www.kirkintillochcanalfestival.org

 

Kirkintilloch – historically the canal boat building capital of Scotland

WEST END FESTIVAL STARTS

Sunday 5 June sees the start of Glasgow’s West End Festival. At 12 noon till 7pm Kelvingrove Park will be transformed into a playground of colour, music, entertainment, food and drink to celebrate the start of the 16th West End Festival.
The Opening Parade – described as Scotland’s Mardi Gras – features eight samba bands, more than 500 costumed characters and musicians who will parade along Kelvin Way and back into the Park around Park Circus. That takes place between 3pm and 4pm.
Everyone is invited to bring a picnic and enjoy the fun. There will be FOUR stages for different kinds of live music: Big Band, Latin and Celtic, Ska and Pop and New music. Lots for children. Stuff to buy. Great spectacles to see. Just be there!

June editorial

This is the month to party in the park, dance in the streets and enjoy the outdoor festivals which have spawned in recent years. The contrast between a one day event for the Southside Festival and a fortnight of activities for the West End Festival is noticeable. The marvellous Mela has music and style but parents need deep pockets for all the activities. The Merchant City Festival has many very unusual and artistic happenings contained in a very neat, readable pocket programme.
Factor in all the family fun days and local gala days with crowning ceremonies and you have acres of entertainment.
Which makes it all the more odd that the BUNGO IN THE BACK LANE in Strathbungo on the Southside was cancelled with less than 24 hours notice. Organisers say the back lane neighbourly event which has been running for 13 years, was harmless and enjoyable. But the city authorities seem to fear for crowd safety with illegal drinking down the dunnies. Whatever has happened there will still be time to have tea with tenants and residents. Let’s know which is your favourite street festival, family fun day or community gala in Glasgow.

Merchant City Festival programme is launched

By Lynsay Keough, photographs by Stuart Maxwell
 
Councillor Gordon Matheson was joined by dancers from the Bollywood style dance group, Nutkhut, to launch the programme for this year’s Merchant City Festival. Nutkhut will perform a Scottish premiere at the Festival, having entertained Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace and danced for thousands at Trafalgar Square. The programme this year moves to an earlier than usual timeslot 22 – 25 July. It offers a diverse array of theatre, music, food, outdoor performance, visual arts, dance and fashion across a wide range of venues, with many of the events free. The Briggait will also be re-launched as a venue this year, with some contemporary circus theatre adventure. The Arches are set to stage SURGE – the first festival developed by Glasgow-based theatre group, CONFLUX. SURGE incorporates physical theatre, street arts and circus acts; its outdoor performances taking place via SURGE at the Merchant City Festival and indoor through SURGE at Home with The Arches as venue.
 
Councillor Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council and chair of the Merchant City Festival hopes that the change in time slot will make the best of the Glasgow summer, with the increasing amount of street art in the programme. Fingers crossed!
For more details on the Festival check the new website: www.merchantcityfestival.com

caption: Councillor Matheson looks on as dancers entertain.