Hidden Door 2015 announced

Feb 2 2015 | By Thom Dibdin More

Disused street lighting depot for pop-up arts fest

Theatre and dance will make up a fifth of this year’s Hidden Door festival’s 100 acts when it runs 22 to 30 May at the old street lighting depot on King’s Stables Road.

Aerial view of the King’s Stables Road site. Image: Hidden Door

Confirming today that the festival go-ahead is guaranteed, even if ongoing negotiations with the council fall down and an alternative venue has to be used, Hidden Door has put early bird tickets on sale for the opening night.

This is despite the official programme not yet being officially announced, other than a handful of early teasers for some of the visual artists on the event website, together with an early list of 55 contributors.

Building on the success of last year’s event, which attracted over 7,500 people to the Market Street Vaults, this year will feature a blend of visual art, music, theatre, dance, cinema and a special programme of performance art curated by the Royal Scottish Academy.

David Martin, founder and director of Hidden Door, said: “The new creative talent in Scotland isn’t content to see the same old names being wheeled out time and time again.

transitory environments

“Hidden Door is about the future of the arts in Scotland; not only creating much needed opportunities for breakthrough artists to make their mark on the capital and connect with new audiences, but also to open up new territory – new places that no one else has dared to touch.

“We provide a new way of bringing the arts to the public – by creating incredible transitory environments that can be explored and enjoyed by everyone.”

Contributing artist Deirdre Macleod’s proposal for a UV-activated drawing

Situated just off the Grassmarket and tucked under the south side of Edinburgh Castle, the disused council works is invisible to passers-by. It is an intriguing complex of buildings of different styles and ages, centred around a large overgrown courtyard.

The quirky range of rooms, hangars and old workshops contains many distinct environments, from vaults underneath the tenements to the south of the site, the modern offices of the 1970s building facing the castle and the warehousing to the west of the site.

Daytime entry will be free and evening entertainment will be paid-for tickets.

Early bird tickets for the Hidden Door opening night, Friday 22 May 2015, 7pm are available from http://hiddendoorblog.org/tickets/ priced at £10 plus booking fee.