The Skinny Current Issue

The (anticipation of) summer starts here – we’re looking forward to months of camping in fields listening to bands, imagining endless sunshine as compensation for the fact that summer never truly arrived last year, and also winter has been very cold. The expectations around weather may or may not be unrealistic, but the bands in fields are definitely real – welcome to the musical festivals special 2025.

On the cover this month, you'll find rising star fae Fife Jacob Alon, brilliantly photographed by Nico Utuk. The shoot required a delegation to cross the water and set up a rudimentary festival site in a Dunfermline park, and the results are wonderful. We sit down with Alon in an Edinburgh gallery cafe for an in-depth walk through their debut album, In Limerence, touch on meeting Elton John, and look forward to their upcoming festival dates in the UK and beyond.

This year’s special explores accessibility and direct action within the festival space, as well as offering up an enormous tick list of lineups to explore, both near and far. We meet some of the team behind Gig Buddies, a year-round scheme helping autistic adults and those with learning disabilities to access the social life they’d like. In the summer they organise group trips to music festivals – we learn more about their hard work lowering the barriers to attendance and giving people the opportunity for a safe and fun live music experience.

We take a look at the work of Ravers for Palestine, who’re trying to instigate community discussion and action around festivals’ investment links. Feminist collective FLAPS (Fannies Listening with Advice and Peer Support) explain their work building safer spaces at music festivals. We meet the man who’s brought a dance music beach festival to Ayr, Pavilion Festival, and learn more about his inspiration to revive the scene of the 90s and 00s.

Beyond the music special, in Film we’ve got an interview with Maxime Jean-Baptiste, whose hybrid documentary Kouté vwa (Listen to the Voices), a fictionalisation of a real family tragedy in post-colonial French Guiana, arrives at Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival this month. We meet the director of Belgian tennis prodigy drama Julie Keeps Quiet, Leonardo Van Dijl, and talk to the director and star of British thriller Restless, Jed Hart and Lyndsey Marshal respectively. And Georgian filmmaker Déa Kulumbegashvili tells us about the making of her abortion drama April, the importance of women being empowered to ask questions, and the role of cinema in challenging repressive systems.

Clubs meets Glasgow clubs icons Slam as they return to their old stomping ground of the Arches (now known as Platform) for an Easter Weekend party. Books hears from Edinburgh-based Irish author Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin, whose debut novel Ordinary Saints explores one family’s attempts to get their son canonised. Comedy interviews Rosco McClelland about his approach to work in progress shows, amid the dawning realisation that he is now an elder statesman of the Scottish comedy scene.

Art looks forward to the Hayward touring exhibition Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, which arrives in DCA this month, shining a light on the relentlessly obscured difficulties of being an artist and a mother. We also explore an events series happening at Stills, which explores the barriers to entry for disabled photographers, while Theatre meets the director of Scottish Opera’s new production of The Merry Widow. Intersections talks women and cycling – what are the challenges around it, how can it be supported in our cities and beyond. Our Design column looks at new restaurant Moss and ceramics studio ViViVi, both launched by a couple who are melding Scottish-Japanese influences with farm-to-table food sourcing and bespoke design, while Food takes a trip to Glasgow for some very good fried chicken.

We close with a return to the festivals focus – Dundee producer Hannah Laing takes on the Q&A, pondering fighting Gemma Collins as she prepares for her sellout hometown festival doof In the Park.