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Nightlife & the Arts in Edinburgh

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Edinburgh Nightlife

The nightlife scene in Edinburgh is vibrant—whatever you're looking for, you'll most certainly find it here, and you won't have to go far. Expect old-style pubs as well as cutting-edge bars and clubs. Live music pours out of most watering holes on weekends, particularly folk, blues, and jazz. Well-known artists perform at some of the larger venues. The List magazine, available at newsstands, gives locations, dates, times, and prices. Make sure you partake in at least one ceilidh (a traditional Scottish dance with music); they're fun and a good way to meet locals.

Edinburgh's 400-odd pubs are a study in themselves. In the eastern and northern districts of the city you'll find some grim, inhospitable-looking places that proclaim that drinking is no laughing matter. But throughout Edinburgh many pubs have deliberately traded in their old spit-and-sawdust images for atmospheric revivals of the warm, oak-paneled, leather-chaired howffs of a more leisurely age. Most pubs and bars are open weekdays and Saturday from 11 AM to midnight, and from 12:30 to midnight on Sunday.

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