Easter in Edinburgh: Events guide

Good Friday (Fri 25 Mar)

Kick off Easter weekend in style – on a boat, with gin. Solid Liquids' Juniper Cruises set off down the Union Canal for two hours of waterbound gin chat, tastings and nibbles on a host of sailings across the bank holiday weekend, including an evening cruise starting at 6pm. Fountainbridge Canal Basin (by Akva); £31, book via solid-liquids.co.uk

The inaugural Edinburgh Nepali Film Festival kicks off at the Biscuit Factory with a screening of drama Talakjung vs Tulke, Nepal's selection for the Foreign Language category at this year's Oscars. The film follows a day-labourer in a Nepalese mountain village as he tries to reclaim a lost identity; it's preceded by comic short Gaantho. The festival continues across the Easter weekend, with Friday's screening kicking off at 7:45pm. edinburghnepalifilmfestival.com

Round off Good Friday with a three-hour set from Numbers signing Denis Sulta at his Sulta Sheikh Down night at Cabaret Voltaire. Sulta's latest release It's Only Real made waves when it dropped last December – read our chat with Sulta here – so expect an action-packed evening in the sweaty, subterranean confines of Cab Vol. 11pm-3am; £7 advance/ £10 on the door.

Sat 26 Mar

Who needs the outside world when you've got a cinema screen and a classic TV series full of foreboding and dread? For those of you eyeing a leisurely Easter weekend, the Cameo's Twin Peaks Weekender is just the thing – every episode of David Lynch's cult classic (all 29 of them) back-to-back. They'll even supply some damn fine coffee. From 10.30am; £40/ £37. For those of you who fancy a trip to the pictures but don't have 1,868 minutes to spare, the same venue screens High-Rise director Ben Wheatley's English Civil War black comedy A Field In England, starring The Mighty Boosh's Julian Barratt and Reece Shearsmith of The League of Gentlemen, at 10pm. 

Elsewhere, street food showcase The Pitt returns for its third installment, featuring food and drink from a host of the city's finest foodies. There's food from Barnacles and Bones, Chompsky and Latin American street food aces Orinoco among others, plus drinks from Barney's Beer, Smith & Gertrude and the Bearded Barista. 12-10pm; 125 Pitt St, free entry.

Easter Sunday (Sun 27 Mar)

We'll begin with the quintessential Easter event; the Easter Egg hunt. The Royal Botanic Gardens will have your charges hunting for a golden egg (things are similarly opulent over at the Palace of Holyroodhouse's Faberge egg hunt on Sat 26 Mar). The Georgian House in Charlotte Square hosts a chocolate hunt that won't be stymied by uncooperative weather, while Edinburgh Zoo's Easter Enrichment event allows you to provide the treats to appreciative animals of all shapes and sizes.

With the family stuff out of the way, head down to Three Sisters for their Old Town Street Food Festival. Two stages of live music, seven bars including a pop-up from Californian brewery Lagunitas, and a maze of street food from the likes of Harajuku Kitchen and Twelve Triangles. From midday; free entry.

On Easter Sunday evening you've got two main options: Sneaky Pete's host a live AV set from Alex Smoke – read our chat with the Glasgow producer – while Nightvision's Easter bash sees them take over all three floors of the Liquid Rooms with a line-up featuring Green Velvet, Drumcode's Alan Fitzpatrick and Berlin-based producer George Fitzgerald. Alex Smoke, 9pm-12am, £8; Nightvision, 9pm-3am, £22.50 

Bank Holiday Monday (Mon 28 Mar)

If you can tear yourself away from your Easter eggs, Bank Holiday Monday offers a couple of intriguing events to make the most of the long weekend. At Electric Circus, guitar wunderkid Kiran Leonard presents tracks from Grapefruit, his debut LP on the venerable Moshi Moshi label (7pm, £8), while Edinburgh Skeptics' series of pub-based discussions as part of Edinburgh Science Festival kick off at Banshee Labyrinth. We may well all end up skeptical and in the pub at the end of a long weekend, but at least this way we might learn something. (7.30pm, £donations)