IT GETS going before the Edinburgh Festival is properly under way and, given how it is developing, it is threatening to eclipse it.

The Royal Burgh of Pittenweem's annual Arts Festival goes from strength to strength. This year's packed week of accessible culture runs from August 7 to 15.

Over the 27 years of its life the festival has established a reputation for a strong and varied visual presentation. This year is no exception with exhibitions in one hundred recognised venues and an impressive array of invitees.

Principal of these are the tapestry weavers the Dovecot Studio in Edinburgh. Their exhibition of work, in the Old Town Hall, reflects the views of the sea that this venue offers.

Readers of AW25, the glossy mag we produced to celebrate our own 25 years of publication back in 2008, will remember that the Dovecot, newly located in the former public baths in Infirmary Street was among artistic undertakings we featured.

As it happens, the cover highlighted another of the artists invited to display their work at this year's Pittenweem Festival - the glass sculptor Keiko Mukaide, who is based in Fife, has a glass and light show in the former Old Men's Club down at the harbour. The work on show is designed to explore the links between the village's fishing communities. Other artists invited to show their work during the festival include Ann Wegmuller, Cate Inglis and Kaneyuki Shimoosako, who was offered the outer wall of the harbour as the site for an installation.

The visual programme is supplemented by a lively week of music and drama, with the whole event exploding with fireworks on the opening night.

As the Pittenweem Festival draws to a close on the weekend of August 14/15 a newcomer gets under way an hour or so's drive up the coast. Saturday, August 14 sees the start of the first Auchmithie Arts Festival.

Foodies will know Auchmithie as the home of the celebrated village eaterie the But 'n' Ben, continuing to flourish under a new generation of the founding family.

Auchmithie's first festival is scheduled to take place in 15 separate locations throughout the village. More details in the Guide in this issue.

Even farther north the inspired Lyth Arts Centre, just north of Wick, is hosting its usual varied visual programme through July and August. Six different artists are showing jewellery, paintings, ceramics, photography and, in the case of David Usborne, designed objects in a show entitled "Objectivity". More from www.lytharts.org.uk