Gayle's Guide ✨ 16th July 26
Issue 107 - Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, a kids' cake decorating class, The Little Mermaid Jr and much more!
I’m literally finishing this sat in the hairdressers (dedication or what!) so hopefully I’ve not got too many typos! Have a great week!
Friday 17th
🍿 Toddler Club: Tiddler + Pip & Posy Sandpit Friends (1-5y) 10.15 🐤
📍 The Everyman Cinema, St James Quarter
Also on Sat/Sunday at 09.30.
🎈 Soft Play 10.00-12.00/12.00-14.00
(Also Tuesdays 10.00-12.00, 12.00-14.00 and 14.00-16.00)
📍 North Merchiston Club, Polwarth
Running as normal all summer! This is one of our regular haunts with lots of climbing and ride on toys plus a little bouncy castle. A trip here burns off some serious energy. You can easily see the kids from the sidelines too which means less chasing around than typical soft play sessions. Home baking, snacks and surprisingly decent coffee available too.
🎨 Tiddlers Summer Holiday Workshop (6-8y) 10.00-12.30 🐔
📍 Birchwood Art Studio, Shandon
”Step into the Birchwood and spend two and a half hours drawing, painting, crafting and maybe getting a bit messy... All materials and a snack are provided.”
Saturday 18th
🌺 Physic Garden Festival 10.00-15.00 🆓
📍 Physic Garden, Palace of Holyrood House
Explore the garden, enjoy nature inspired storytelling and live musical performances, decorate a seed box or a mini plant pot, make a flower shield or visit the pop-up play corner. Fabulous!
🎨 Play Saturday 13.00-16.00 🆓
📍 Collective Gallery, Calton Hill
”Join us as we embark on an afternoon of hands-on making, storytelling and mysticism in response to Katie Paterson’s Afterlife, inviting children to imagine themselves as guardians of the environment. The session is aimed at primary-aged children, but there will be activities for younger children such as painting and exploring natural materials as a way to create art.”
🥳 Mardi Gras 13.00-17.00 🆓
📍 Grassmarket
”Expect non-stop entertainment and a party atmosphere as a host of bands perform on multiple stages, bringing jazz and blues to the heart of Edinburgh.”
🌊 Splash at the Shore 14.00-14.45
📍 Lost Shore, Ratho
Just mentioning this again cos loads of you clicked this link last week and there are very limited opportunities to go. The dates currently available are:
Sat 18th / Sun 19th July at 14.00
Tue 21st / Wed 22nd at 12.00
Sat 25th at 14.00
Sunday 19th
🎉 Edinburgh Festival Carnival Parade 13.00 onwards 🆓
📍 Starting at the top of the Mound, heading to West End of Princes St
Loads going on in West Princes St Gardens too:
2:30pm: Chinese performances on the Terrazzo
3:30pm: High-energy Soca and Caribbean sounds
4.30pm: Tartan Rhythms
5pm: All female reggae band Akabu Queens
6pm: The hottest latin rhythms from salsa ensemble Orquesta Boreal
PLUS! Activity across the Gardens including dancing, drumming and circus skills!
✨ Just double check locations before arriving because of all the diversions and road closures with that fire on Princes St!
🎷 Tenement Jazz Band for Kids 14.00
📍 North Merchiston Club
NMC are really ramping up their kids’ events which is amazing! Particularly since I am lazy and live locally so I’m always very pro NMC. This band is venturing from their usual home of The Jazz Bar on Chamber St to put on one of their famous kids’ shows. Part of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.
Monday 20th
🚀 Summer Family Fun MON/FRI 10.00-16.00 🆓
📍 National Museum of Scotland
All sorts going on at the museum over the summer holidays. This week’s theme is Space: Mission Planet Earth.
🍿 Toddler Time: The Gruffalo 11.00
📍 Cameo, Tollcross
Tuesday 21st
🍿 Family Film Club: The Goonies (5y+) 10.30
📍 Everyman Cinema
Also on Thu at 10.45.
🧑🧒 Non-Traditional Families Workshops 14.00 🆓
📍 Duncan Place Community Hub, Leith
This event is for anyone who identifies as part of a non‑traditional family. This includes, but isn’t limited to:
same‑sex parents
families involving known biological donors
multiple‑parent families
plural or polyamorous relationships
families that don’t fit the assumed sexual relational model
solo parents, solo adults planning families, or solo people
✨ I’d love to be able to feature more events for “non-traditional” families so please do get in touch if you run a group or know of anything along these lines!
Wednesday 22nd
🌧️ Cloudy Crafts and Rainbow Rhymes 13.30-14.30 🆓
📍 National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge
Taking place every Wednesday in July, these are craft sessions based on the theme of rain and weather, inspired by the library’s new exhibition, ‘Rain‘.
Thursday 23rd
🎭 The Little Mermaid JR. THU-SAT
📍 Portobello Town Hall
A live production of Disney’s Little Mermaid featuring lots of local children. Adorabe!
✨ I’m going to take a brief pause next week and be back the following week so the paid section of this newsletter will unlock and mail out again on the 23rd so read to the end to see the whole thing when it arrives the second time - it’s not a mistake!
You lovely paying subscribers can obviously see it now so thanks for your support!
🔮 Friday 24th
🖼️ Art Summer | Sensory Families (PMLD) 10.30-12.30 🌻 🆓
📍 Modern One
”Expect gentle, sensory-rich activities, hands-on making with a variety of textures and materials, time to explore at your own pace and a calm, welcoming space to connect with others.”
🍄🟫 MycoKids with Vii 14.00-15.00 🆓
📍 Granton Castle Walled Garden
A fungi-themed workshop for kids! STILL never made it down to one of these workshops but it’s probably one of the things I’m most intrigued about that I feature in this newsletter. I’d love to hear about it if you go along!
Saturday 25th
🦊 Foxfest SAT/SUN 10.00-17.00
📍 Conifox Adventure Park
We went to this last year and while it was great fun with absolutely LOADS to entertain the kids (including tribute acts to the likes of Taylor Swift and KPOP Demon Hunters), we did end up spending a lot more than we’d intended since there are lots of funfair rides plus the indoor play area that cost on top of your entry ticket. Have a strategy before you go cos obviously changes the vibe if you inadvertently cause a tantrum by saying “no” too many times! A nice day out for a celebration maybe though if you’ve got some generous granparents/aunties/uncles wanting to treat a birthday boy/girl!
🎷 Sound Explorers (3-5y) 10.00-11.00 🐤
📍 Currie Community Centre
Part of Edinburgh Jazz Festival, here’s an interactive musical workshop led by saxophonist and educator Sue McKenzie.
❄️ Frozen Sing-a-long 14.30
📍 King’s Theatre, Tollcross
The Grand Old Lady of Leven Street is kicking back into action after her long hiatus. This is a chance to be one of the first punters back through the doors after almost 4 years of refurbishment. This will be a screening of the film, not a performance.
Sunday 26th
🎦 Relaxed Screening: Minions & Monsters 09.30 🌻
📍 Everyman Cinema
”A special screening with a reduced volume, dimmed lighting, and no ads or trailers, creating a calm and stress-free setting for neurodiverse guests, including those with autism and sensory sensitivities, and their friends, family, and carers.”
🖼 Family Print Club (6y+) 10.15/14.00 🐔
📍 Edinburgh Printmakers, Fountainbridge
These printing sessions are for children to enjoy with their grown-ups so a bit of bonus creativity for you too! This one will involve Mono Printing & Collagraph.
🌱 Open Day 12.00-17.00 🆓
📍 Red Moss of Balerno, Pentland Hills
”Celebrate International Bog Day!” … you don’t need to tell me twice!! 🥳🍾🙌🏻
We are so amazingly lucky to have the Pentland Hills within such easy reach of the city. If you’ve never been to this bit, there’s a fantastic boardwalk which is wheelchair/buggy accessible and you might even spot a dragonfly, frog or newt at this rare, raised dome peat bog. The open day will involve some tours, expert talks and pond dipping so dress for a big bog celebration! (Sequin puddlesuit and glitter wellies maybe?)
🎵 Music Encounters 13.00-15.30 🆓
📍 Starbank Park, Newhaven
How nice! A wee outdoor music session featuring Singing Willows, Den Kempsell and The Three Clarinets, Joan Blasco and Ali Affleck’s Speakeasy Swing.
✨ There’s also a Music Encounters session in Prestonfield Park from 13.00-15.00 on Sat 25th July.
Monday 27th
Tuesday 28th
🤸 Capoeira for Families (5-12y) 14.00-15.00 🐔 🆓
📍 Edinburgh Central Library, George IV Bridge
A dance and movement workshop for children with Axé Boom Boom!
Wednesday 29th
🏅 Family Sports Day (5y+) 10.00 🐔
📍 Lauriston Castle
”As we roar on Team Scotland in this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, why not have a go at some of our very special Lauriston Sports, although we are not sure how many of them will make it into the games! You will even get the chance to make your own medal to take home.”
🎪 Circus The Show (4y+) 12.00
📍 Spiegeltent Palais Du Variete, George Sq Gardens
This show with “countless five-star reviews, international awards, and sell-out seasons worldwide” is running til the 1st as part of Edinburgh Folk & Food Festival (so many festivals!) but will be doing a longer fun for the Fringe over August. If you’re interested, go during this run cos local residents’ tickets are £8.25 instead of £17.75.
🌋 Holyrood Family Adventure (5y+) 13.00 🐔
📍 Holyrood Park
We went along to one of these before with my daughter’s friend a few weeks ago and they had such a nice time exploring and looking for flowers and bugs. It was such a wholesome afternoon out in the fresh air and it’s amazing how much information the kids retained from the park ranger. Definitely recommend if you’ve got a wee explorer in your house! Not many tickets left.
Thursday 30th
🎭 Stage Door presents: Disney’s High School Musical 19.30-21.30
📍 Portobello Town Hall