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After last night’s fearsome tunes frenzy at the supposedly final Folkytown, along at the Flying Duck - Damien Dempsey was there and everything - the word on da street (well, on Facebook…) is that Calum MacCrimmon’s ridiculously successful Celtic fringe shenanigans will enjoy one last hurrah (unless of course it becomes an ongoing thing…) this coming Sunday, probably from 4-8pm or thereabouts: the perfect way to set yourself up for the final night’s maelstrom at the Festival Club.

Added to the programme relatively late was tomorrow’s fascinating-sounding and FREE talk “Selkies, Shapeshifters and Sex” by Dr Donna Heddle, director of the Centre for Nordic Studies at the University of the Highlands and Islands, who explains: “This lecture is about the shape-shifting supernatural creatures like selkies and faeries which inhabit Scottish ballads such as Tam Lin. I’ll be discussing their nature, their history in oral ballads and their legacy in written literature. I’ll also be exploring what these creatures and their associations with sex say about the society that created them, asking why do the Scots need the dark and sexy world of the supernatural?” It’s on Friday 3 Feb at 12.30pm, in the Buchanan Suite at the Concert Hall, and is unticketed: first come first served.

Among the Concert Hall crew, the event has already seen its name abbreviated to “Sexy Selkies”, and also occasioned an email within the Concert Hall, eloquently illustrating just how far into the spirit of things these tireless workers get: 

 “The information we have on the lecture in the Buchanan Suite this Friday (3rd Feb) states that it is to be set for 120 theatre style. The capacity for the Buchanan Suite is 100. I realise that a lecture given by sexy Selkies could prove popular and it may be tempting to go beyond the usual numbers, but we should put our sensible heads on and not let our racing heartbeats dictate our actions. There will also need to be room for those for whom the whole affair may prove too much...”

Another cracking line-up on offer tonight at the BBC Radio 3 World on 3 sessions in the Exhibition Hall (10pm-3am, £6), including a selection of stars from the Transatlantic Sessions, hot off the stage from their sellout opening gig in the Main Auditorium; hot-to-trot Highland/Island boyband Mànran; up-and-coming Scottish singer-songwriter Rory Butler, and the wonderful Occitan vocal quartet Moussu T e lei jovents, following their earlier performance in the Blues of the World show at the O2 ABC.