Fingers crossed the weather man will provide a sunny day to accompany the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival's

The free Mardi Gras launches Edinburgh's Festival season with its customary brio. The multiple stages and marching bands bring a splash of colour and the sounds of jazz to the streets.

The Edinburgh Jazz Festival is to receive £49,370 from the Scottish Government's Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund for an annual Scottish Jazz Expo.

Annual festival which runs the gamut of jazz persuasions from more traditional Dixie and ragtime bands to up-and-coming stars, from big band concerts to pub jams.

Billed as "Frank, Sammy and Dean, The Rat Pack - Live from Las Vegas" this is a glamorous recreation of a show at the Sands Theatre, Las Vegas in the 1960s.