The aims of the festival is to provide a programme of first class entertainment, and to ensure variety and value that allows all sections of the community to take part and help put Glasgow on the map as one of the worlds leading cities.

Since its inception, the Glasgow International Comedy Festival has gone from strength to strength and the festival today involves over 50 venues across the city, and more than 400 shows take place over 25 days. There are many performers taking part some of whom already know national or international fame, while others are new upcoming talent. One major aim of the festival is to showcase home grown comics and help to build on and increase the comedy infrastructure which has been nurtured in Scotland since the inception of the festival. As part of this, the festival intentionally pushes the boundaries of contemporary comedy as well as offering shows that have a more traditional family appeal.

There is always something for everyone at the festival meaning everyone can enjoy a good laugh, and the event includes everything from stand-up shows to films, theatre productions and shows for the kids with prices that vary according to the popularity of the comedian as well as the venue. It’s not just a good way to see some of your favourite comedians, but also to try out some of the various venues around the city too from the huge to the very small more intimate ones.

Overall, the Glasgow International Comedy Festival is a great way to expose yourself to a more diverse experience of comedy, have a great time, and support new up and coming comedians too.

Over the years since it was founded in 1947 the festival has grown. Originally founded as ‘a platform for the flowering of the human spirit’ after the second world war, the festival has inspired many people and in fact right from it’s very earliest beginnings it has been much more than just a single festival. In its first year, eight other theatrical companies gate crashed the event by putting on their own shows, and these have developed into the well known Edinburgh Fringe Festival (EFF) which today runs alongside the EIF and includes theatre, comedy, musicals, music, dance and more.

The EIF is a curated festival. This means that every artist and company who appear in the festival is there at the invitation of the festivals director. There have been ten festival directors so far with the current one being Jonathan Mills.

The EIF is a not-for-profits organisation and a registered charity. It raises money to fund its activities through income from ticket sales during the festival, fundraising and sponsorship and has a year round programme of outreach work and education which this money funds.
The events that take place during the festival include concerts, plays, talks, master-classes, ballet, symphonies, and music from a wide range of people and instruments. Performers come from around the world to be a part of this very special event.

The first festival had around 17,000 music fans attending, while today, the size of this wonderful event has grown to around 5 times its original size and it now has an 85,000 capacity and is one of the important music events on the international festival circuit.

Each year, the festival has over 200 artists who perform across three days and on a number of stages around the event. T in the Park has cutting edge DJs, some of the best breakthrough acts, and many of the biggest names in the music world have performed here including Lady Gaga, Kings of Leon, The Prodigy, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Jay-Z, Black Eyed Peas, The Who, Green Day, The Killers, Foo Fighters, REM, Oasis, Radiohead, Muse, Eminem, Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Rage Against The Machine, Paolo Nutini, and many more.

As well as offering festival goers some amazing line-ups, T in the Park is also continually looking for ways to help those same festival goers look after the environment. They introduced a bar-cup recycling scheme in 2006 which was soon expanded across the rest of the event and has become incredibly successful with a 10p deposit added to the cost of your pint, but refundable when you hand the cup in at a designated recycling point. There have been many other initiatives including Healthy T which gives an area of the festival offering more healthy and interesting festival food than the usual burgers. Today it often includes delights such as sushi, crepes, organic burgers, hot salmon rolls and more, and is a major destination on the site.

Continuing the green theme, many people who visit the festival camp, and campers are urged to car share or take the bus, and there are bins galore across the site with people encouraged to ‘Keep T Tidy’ and phosphate free soap is a must if you stay here.

As you wander around the T in the Park site, there are many other amusements and activities as well as bands to keep you occupied. From food to funfair, silent disco to gaming such as the EA Games tour truck and the Nintendo comedy café and loads more.

The first Edinburgh Tattoo took place back in 1950, and there were just eight items in the programme. Today, the programme is filled with a wide array of music, dance and display that can include everything from daredevil motorcycles to re-enactments of battles, traditional Highland dancers and exotic Turkish dancers. The show is now an amazing blend of home grown and international talent which combines to keep the show fresh, exciting and alive.

The castle backdrop affords the event an awesome presence with great flaring torches lighting the walls and at the finale all thousand or so performers gather together on the Esplanade, there is much singing cheering and clapping before a hush falls and the final evening hymn is sung, the last post is sounded, and the flags are lowered. The lone piper stands playing his final haunting notes and the skies darken before bursting out with fireworks that light up the night in a spectacular echo of everything seen earlier. Friends, strangers, in fact everyone present joins together, shaking each others hands and singing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ a song filled with emotion and a feeling of shared love and tradition.

More than 12 million people have attended the Tattoo over its lifetime, and there are many who return again and again enjoying not just the spectacular display, but the fun of watching the faces of those who are seeing it all for the first time too.

At the top of the Royal Mile is the Tattoo’s new attraction – The Spirit of the Tattoo. This is the compelling story of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo told through an interactive exhibition and movie theatre. Around 100,000 people visit it each year.

In its 60+ years, the Tattoo has never ever been cancelled. Set up and run for charitable purposes, any excess earnings it generates are distributed to fund charitable arts and service benevolent organisations.

Over the years it has gifted some £5million to service and civilian organisations including those helping service people with disabilities, infirmity and poverty, Seafarers UK, and the Edinburgh International Festival.

http://www.edintattoo.co.uk/

This will be the first time in over 40 years that this tournament has been played on Scottish soil, and the 2014 Ryder Cup is expected to attract in excess of 40,000 spectators every day. The PGA Centenary course was created by Jack Nicklaus, and opened in 1993. The course, set as it is in the heart of Scotland, is surrounded by beautiful countryside. Nicklaus described the course as ‘The finest parcel of land in the world I have ever been given to work with’.

This course is one full of challenges. The tees are graded at each hole in the five stages, and the course begins by playing southeast towards the glen, sweeping up the Ochil Hills to the top of the pass below Ben Shee. The two tier second green offers panoramic views of the Perthshire straths, and as you move westwards, the rugged beauty of the Grampians comes into view shortly followed by Ben Vorlich and the mountains above the Trossachs.

All games within the Ryder Cup are played under Match play rules, where the result of each game is determined by the number of holes won. The order of play for the first two days is Foursomes in the morning, and Fourball in the afternoon. On the final day, the play will be in singles format.

Foursomes play is a match where two golfers play as a team against two other golfers. They play one ball per team alternating their shots until the hole is complete. The team with the better score wins the hole. There are four groups of two, two man teams.
Fourball play format, is where each member of the two man team plays their own ball, so four balls are in play per hole. The team who have the player with the lowest score on that hole win the hole.

Singles format, is a match where one player competes one on one against another player. A player wins the match when he is up by more holes than there are left to play. There are twelve groups of two, one man teams.

There’ll be dancing on the Street on Sunday 4th July as Rose Street in Edinburgh hosts its own wee Festival. From the professional to the amateur – performers of all description will bring the Street alive with the sound of music.

Each of the four blocks of Rose Street will be animated with either dance, street theatre, ceilidh or buskers!

Dance – hosted by Sadie Flower, the winner of the original Strictly Dance Fever, there’ll be performances and workshops of break dancing, disco and Lindi Hop!

Street Theatre – there’ll be shows from leading ‘breakers’ Ghetlow Pirates as well as monkeying around with ‘Creature Feature – Plan it with the Apes’. There’s acrobatics, comedy characters and a musical Nun! Expect the unexpected.

Ceilidh – showcasing the very best in traditional Scottish music, including local favourites the Portobello Ceilidh Band.

Buskers – calling all amateurs! Rose Street will provide the perfect stage for the entertainers you hate to love. Whether it’s a rendition of ‘Wonderwall’ or a self-penned future classic we’ll be asking the public to score every busker. By the end of the day we will name the best busker who will win a private singing lesson (not that they need one).

There are three ways to book tickets for the Edinburgh Film Festival, online, in person at a box office, or by telephone. Not everything is available to book online, but all events can be booked by phone or at three of the four box offices which are Filmhouse, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Cineworld. Cameo which is also a box office, only sells tickets for Cameo screenings. Ticket prices vary for each event, and there are many free ticket events throughout the programme as well.

Events and screenings take place all round Edinburgh, with venues in churches, restaurants, hotels, galleries, theatres and more. Filmhouse in Lothian Road EH3 is the official home of the Edinburgh Film Festival, and many events take place here.

There are many different strands to the Edinburgh Film Festival, including Animation, Black Box where you’ll find daring experiments in film form, British Gala where all the best new UK cinema, Directors show case, Documentary, Festival events where you can get up close and personal with some of the greats of the cinema world, Shorts, and Gala events where the red carpet will be very much in evidence.

Many awards are given out at the Edinburgh Film Festival, these acknowledge the talent of both national and international film makers, and these awards are highly sought after. They include such awards as ‘Best International Short Fiction Award’, ‘The Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film’, ‘The Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus Award’, ‘The McLaren Award for New British Animation in Partnership with BBC Film Network’, and ‘Short Film Nominee Edinburgh for the European Film Awards’.

The whole event is filled with fun and brings many people to Edinburgh from all around the world. The atmosphere is always charged and everyone enjoys a great time.

http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/

The Games take place over 11 days from the 23rd of July to the 3rd of August, and there are 17 sports played. 10 of these are core sports – these are always played at every Commonwealth games, and their medals always competed for. The other 7 games are selected by the host city from a choice of 16 options.

The full list of events selected for the 2014 games are:

* Aquatics
* Athletics
* Badminton
* Boxing
* Cycling
* Gymnastics
* Hockey
* Judo
* Lawn Bowls
* Netball
* Rugby 7s
* Shooting
* Squash
* Table Tennis
* Triathlon
* Weightlifting
* Wrestling

Aquatics is one of the core games, and two elements will be featured, swimming and diving.

Athletics will involve three areas, track, field and marathon.

Badminton is widely regarded as the fastest of the racquet sports, and six gold medal events will take place in Men’s and Women’s singles and doubles as well as mixed doubles and a combined mixed.

Boxing is one of the most physically demanding sports on the programme, and there will be 10 weight categories meaning 10 gold medals and 10 champions at the end of it all.

Cycling is represented in several ways with the programme involving mountain biking, road and track events.

Gymnastics is in the form of both artistic and rhythmic, and will show off the grace, flexibility and athleticism of the gymnasts.

Hockey is a popular game played throughout the Commonwealth, and there will be ten nations partaking in each of the Men’s and Women’s hockey competitions.

Judo has seven weight categories with so fourteen competitions over all, seven for the men, seven for the women.

Lawn bowls is another core sport and is strongly represented through out the Commonwealth with athletes coming from all age groups, and backgrounds.

Netball is a fast action packed game at this level of competition with just one gold medal up for grabs amongst the twelve competing nations.

Rugby 7s is a concertina version of the traditional rugby union game. Expect high point scoring, hard hits and fast sprints as sixteen teams battle it out for a single gold medal.

Shooting comes in the form of clay target, full bore, pistols and small bore. All shooting events require strong focus, skill and nerve and each of the four disciplines has its own appeal and challenge. Over 40 of the 71 competing countries will be sending teams for this event.

Squash has five gold medals up for grabs, singles and doubles in both Men’s and Women’s events, and mixed doubles.

Table Tennis is rated as one of the world’s top five most popular sports so it’s no surprise to see it here. It requires accuracy, speed and split second reactions to keep the ball in play.

Triathlon is probably the most demanding of all the sports at the games, combining three unique disciplines of swimming, cycling and running, athletes need to demonstrate extremely high levels of fitness and endurance as well as physical and mental strength.

Weightlifting is a competition of physical toughness where athletes compete according to fifteen weight categories to record the biggest lift and win the gold medal.

Wrestling involves pairs of athletes contesting in a series of grapples, holds, pummels, throws and pins to try to out wit their opponent.

http://www.glasgow2014.com/
http://www.glasgowgames2014.org.uk