Leith Festival Fundraiser

With Con-Dem budget cuts starting to bite across the country, many arts ventures have found themselves with a fraction of their normal funding. The Leith Festival, running every June and featuring a variety of comedy, music and family events, is one such venture finding their cupboards significantly barer compared with last year.

But rather than accepting defeat, organisers have decided to raise the difference themselves, starting with a comedy night on Thursday 14 April at Leith Dockers club on Academy Street. The night features top local stand-ups Keir McAllister (featured in last months Skinny discussing his comedy hero), Jay Lafferty, fresh from the success of her ‘Jaydee & Coke’ shows at the Magners Glasgow International Comedy Festival, and Irishman-turned-native-Leith-er, Niall Browne. Mistress of Ceremonies will be another Leith migrant (by way of Glasgow this time), the fabulous comedian and Evening News columnist, Susan Morrison. All the comedians will be performing free of charge to help the Festival stay afloat.

Morrison thinks its great to be helping out the Leith Festival, a local community event which is getting better every year. "The cuts in funding could have slowed that success down, but the community itself is mobilising to raise funds to keep their Festival going. They are planning pub quizzes, dance nights and raffles. I'm only worried that I'm one of the prizes in the raffle."