Greet­ings: it’s The Masked Barfly here, and I’ve been keep­ing my com­pound eyes peeled for drinky sto­ries to keep you informed, enter­tained and ine­bri­at­ed. With the Fest about to kick off, and the Fringe well under way, it’s going to be a busy time out on the town for a while.

Bars near the Fowl-house and Town Hall are like­ly to be hum­ming, and while I don’t expect the luvvies and K‑block matrons to be hit­ting Blend or Down­town Local (now, that would be a scene to see!), cafes like Felix, Finc and The Lido will be crammed with eth­i­cal­ly-faux furs and rent­ed tux­es. Ponci­er bars such as St Johns will be tak­en over for spon­sors’ drinks, such as for tonight’s open­ing Ornette Cole­man, though I won­der what most of the bray­ing suits would make of the squawk­ing sax?

While there’s nowhere brand-new to take advan­tage of the free-spend­ing boomers, the fly is notic­ing a buzz build­ing around the Courte­nay Place and Blair St area, and is get­ting quite excit­ed. No, not over The Tem­per­ance (while any barfly can appre­ci­ate the iron­ic moniker, three floors of tanked-up boof­heads is not my idea of fun), but over a cou­ple of high­ly-antic­i­pat­ed and long-rumoured open­ings. UU (did any­one ever call it that?) has been closed for ren­o­va­tions, and a sneaky peak revealed the mir­rors giv­ing way to brick. That, com­bined with the appear­ance of bull­fight­ing posters in the win­dow, has me won­der­ing: could this be a prop­er tapas bar at last. And as for what’s hap­pen­ing in Blair St … well, my mandibles are sealed.