Hidden Door Birthday Party weekend
Remember that even if you have not managed to snap up a ticket for the Hidden Door Festival’s 10th birthday then you can go along on Saturday afternoon to the car park in St James Quarter which will be transformed into a two-night underground party, performance and arts space. There will be lights and bars, music and visual art, projections and performance, and dance theatre from the Wanderers.
Here is what to expect on Saturday afternoon when entry is free:
“As always, we are offering the opportunity to explore our venue for free to ensure as many people as possible can experience everything we’ve brought together.
“On Saturday 11 May between 1pm – 6pm you’ll be able to:
- explore stunning visual art from 18 artists and collectives
- purchase exclusive art and merchandise from our stalls
- get your live portrait done by Alice Simpson
- sign up to a screen printing taster session with Aimée and Karina (first come, first served)
- find out how to become a Friend of Hidden Door
- meet the staff at Edinburgh Tool Library to hear about their work
- chat to our wellbeing and safeguarding partners, Fanny Riots FLAPS
- grab a drink from our pop-up bar
- order some delicious Bao Buns from our food partner Ozen
- More information here.
Indie News Week 2024
As founder members of The Scottish Beacon we are taking part in an event on 7 June to be held at the Grassmarket Community Centre.
Read more here about how you can attend the event.
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Tradfest 2024
Edinburgh Tardiest is well under way. The 11-day long programme runs until Monday 13 May with music, storytelling and folk film.
Highlights coming up include: Edinburgh Tradfest’s closing concert at the Assembly Rooms (13 May) with vocal superstar Julie Fowlis andhighly respected fiddler Laura Wilkie. Julie Fowlis, forever recognised for singing the theme songs to Disney Pixar’s Brave, and singing live at the opening ceremony of the Glasgow XX Commonwealth Games. will grace the stage with her crystalline and intoxicating vocals, accompanied by special guest Laura Wilkie whose debut solo album Vent – an instrumental exploration or traditional Gaelic waulking songs, is released on 5 July. Laura will perform with musician Ian Carr on guitar/harmonium.
Newly formed bands and new work coming up includes Triptic (Greg Lawson, Phil Alexander and Mario Caribe from Moishe’s Bagel) on Fri 10 May and Birdvox (Sarah Hayes, Jenny Sturgeon, Charlotte Printer and Inge Thomson) on Thursday who will debut this Festival. Plus, Malin Lewis launches their new album Halocline (Wed 8 May), Norman&Corrie whose music transcends both jazz and folk will present new music created in Shetland for their forthcoming album later this year (Thu 9 May); and storyteller Daiva Ivanauskatie and musician Gaynor Barradell explore the silence between generations in Fire from the Woods at the Storytelling Centre this Saturday.
More about the programme here.
The Piano in Edinburgh
This Sunday on Channel 4 the programme The Piano will show the piano in Waverley Station and will apparently feature an Argentinian tango.
Local pianist Vroni Holzmann will also feature with her streetpiano.
Vroni said: “I play a little Steingraeber piano with a lovely bright sound. It is small but very heavy and it’s solid iron frame is the reason it can hold its tuning on tour which I am very grateful for. How do I get it to places? Sweat and tears. You take the van with the piano in it as close to the performance space as you can. Then the task is to find some passers by with muscles and kindness, and they help you unload the unwieldy thing. Once this has been accomplished I need to take the van away and park it somewhere safely, and the return to my piano to play it as much as possible before any rainfall stops me.
“My repertoire is a funky mix of stride pano, boogie woogie, ragtime, old jazz tunes and some classical music. I love finding original versions of tunes by Fats Waller, George Gershwin, Scott Joplin and other geniuses. I will practice them for years and then bring them out to unsuspecting ears of random listeners.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
