What's On in Edinburgh

Bach Cello Suites by Candlelight — Few settings in the world can match St Giles Cathedral after dark, when hundreds of flickering candles throw warm gold light across its gothic stonework and the air fills with Bach's immortal solo suites. This is music stripped back to its bare, devastating essentials — just a cello, an extraordinary acoustic, and a piece of writing that has moved people to tears for three centuries. Doors open at 6:15pm and tickets run from £15 to £45, making this one of the most transportive ways to begin a Friday evening in the city.

Annasach's Ceilidh at The Counting House — If you have never flung yourself around a dance floor to a live ceilidh band, tonight at The Counting House Ballroom is exactly the night to fix that — and if you have, you will need absolutely no persuading. Annasach bring the full traditional Scottish experience: reels, jigs, caller instructions for the uninitiated, and an infectious communal joy that transcends age and background entirely. Kicking off at 7:30pm for just £15, this is hands-down one of the most fun, most sociable, and most Edinburgh things you can do on a Friday night.

Kevin Bridges: Here If You Need Me — Glasgow's finest export returns to the Edinburgh Playhouse stage with his brand new stand-up show, and if his previous tours are anything to go by, your face will ache from laughing before the interval. Bridges has a genius for finding the absurdity in everyday life and delivering it with warmth rather than cynicism — the kind of comedian who makes a packed theatre of strangers feel like old friends by the end of the night. Curtain up at 8:00pm, check the website for tickets before they are gone.

Altered Images — Clare Grogan and Altered Images are back, and seeing them at the Liquid Room — one of Edinburgh's most beloved mid-size venues — feels like exactly the right room for this kind of joyful, post-punk nostalgia trip. From the jangling guitars of Happy Birthday to the shimmering melancholy of I Could Be Happy, this is a band whose catalogue rewards rediscovery as much as it rewards memory. Showtime is 7:00pm, so check the website quickly and treat yourself to one of the most purely enjoyable gigs of the season.

Edinburgh - Visible Seam Release Show — Sneaky Pete's has launched more careers than it has room to hold, and tonight it hosts what promises to be one of the year's most intimate and exciting local music moments — a full release show from Edinburgh's own Visible Seam. There is nothing quite like being in a small, sweaty venue on the night an artist puts new music into the world for the first time, that electric sense of being present at something. Doors at 7:00pm and just £10 on the door — a genuine bargain for a genuine Edinburgh experience.

DISFUNCTION x SECTOR : Secret Rave 2023 Edition (Edinburgh) — When the rest of the city starts winding down, Potterrow cranks up, and this DISFUNCTION x SECTOR collaboration is the kind of late-night affair that Edinburgh's underground dance community lives for. Thundering sound, credible selectors, and a crowd that is there purely for the music make this the destination for anyone who considers midnight the beginning of the evening rather than the end. Doors at 10:30pm, tickets between £15 and £20 — sleep is for Saturday.