🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 14 - 20 May 2025
EHFM's new app, Rebecca Vasmant live, North Edinburgh Community Festival, Jonathan Baldock's zoo at Jupiter Artland + some big new creative jobs
Welcome to the 88th weekly edition of the Culture Minute: a round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative news, events, jobs and opportunities.
If I’ve missed anything please get in touch.
👀 The most-viewed links from the last Edinburgh Culture Minute:
- 🎭 Pussy Riot headline Summerhall Arts August festival programme.
- 📚 Book Festival announces first names (on sale now).
- 🎶 Music on the Mezzanine returns to the Central Library on George IV Bridge.
News:
Short notice but go if you can: Hotly tipped by Gilles Peterson, Rebecca Vasmant plays Sneaky Pete’s tonight (Wednesday). She’s bringing with her an ensemble featuring “some of the most outstanding Scottish jazzers of this decade and likely the next”. - Tickets are here and if you still need convincing, read this feature in Wonderland mag about the ‘incredible new talented women in UK jazz’, featuring Rebecca, and have a listen to her song ‘Rooted’.
🎸 On Thursday at the Liquid Room, it’s the Fun Lovin’ Criminals original frontman Huey Morgan. - Tickets.
⮑ Glen Matlock, an original member of the Sex Pistols, plays the Voodoo Rooms on Tuesday. - Tickets.
🎵 It’s been a long time coming but EHFM now has its own app, making it much easier to listen to Edinburgh’s online community radio station on the go. No more trying to find things on Soundcloud or Mixcloud. The station is broadcast from its new studio at Ground Floor cafe in Leith, where you can watch the DJs in action with a cuppa. Director Jamie Pettinger told the Minute:
"We're super excited to be finally launching this app after it being in the works for some time! Our aim really is to have as many people as possible listening to the incredible wealth of talent coming out of this city, and we think this app will make it much easier and accessible for local folk to do this."
⮑ The new app allows listeners to access EHFM’s live schedule of over 100 residents on the go. It’s free on the Google Play and the iOS App Store.
🎪 The annual North Edinburgh Community Festival is on Saturday 17 May at West Pilton Park. There will be more than 80 marquees featuring more than 160 local organisations. There’s also live music from Tinderbox among more than a dozen musical acts throughout the day. - Full details here.
🎨 Artist Jonathan Baldock has a new exhibition at Jupiter Artland, open now until September. The venue’s Ballroom Gallery is ‘transformed into a zoo of hybrid animals formed from textile and clay’. - More details here.
🎤 The next two gigs in the AMPLIFI series at The Queen’s Hall have been announced. - Full details here.
⮑ This Saturday at The Queen’s Hall: An Evening of Francis Rossi’s Songs from the Status Quo Songbook. On Sunday: Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers. Next month: Martha Wainwright’s 20th anniversary tour.
🎷 The Leith Jazz and Blues Festival launch party is this weekend. It’s on Sunday from 7.30pm at Malt & Hops with live music from Trio Creole and Jed Potts. - The list of this year’s venues is here. The festival runs from 6 - 8 June.
🇦🇺 Australian soft rock legend Donny Benét is playing at La Belle Angele on Sunday. A cutout of the style icon himself has been spotted around town enjoying the weather…
🤝 Creative Edinburgh is looking for more mentors to join its next Mentoring Programme. The organisation says: “Whether you're a visual artist, writer, musician, or work in another creative field - your experience could make a real difference to someone starting out.” - More details here.
📆 For more local creative events, check out Naomi Head’s Good Egg Project newsletter. This week: Tales at the Lighthouse storytelling open mic, a creative networking night + Yoga for Creative Writing…
🎭 What's on Edinburgh's stages this week?
With thanks - as always - to All Edinburgh Theatre’s Thom Dibdin for sharing this:
Another full card of theatre this week supported by a pair of world premieres, some cracking amateur shows and a couple of hotly anticipated tourers.
The biggy is at the Lyceum, where Martin Green's tale of a fiery young colliery band member KELI (ends Sat: tickets) opens in a full production at last.
For dance lovers, Barrowland Ballet is at the Studio Theatre with Wee Man (Fri/Sat: tickets), celebrating and questioning the shifting, and unshifting, rules of masculinity across different generations.
For the local amateurs, Arkle enter their final year with Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist at Hill Street Theatre (ends Sat: tickets), while Leitheatre is at the Church Hill with Quiz (ends Sat: tickets).
The big tourer is the return of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to the Festival Theatre (ends Sat: tickets), while Yolanda Mercy has her Failure Project at the Traverse (Thurs/Fri: tickets).
A clutch of outliers round things off nicely. Stage Door have Sister Act at Portobello Town Hall (Thurs-Sat: tickets); the EU Footlights are creating a Musical in a Day (Sat: tickets) at the Bedlam, where the EUTC have new play That Will Stain the Marble (ends Fri: tickets).
And finally, £15 tickets are now on sale to Thurs 22 may for Moulin Rouge! The Musical, at the Playhouse (ends Sat 14 June: tickets).
See Æ's various listings pages, all linked here for more details.
📌 Edinburgh Culture Minute Community Noticeboard
📌 “Local Cinema is delighted to announce that Laura Carreira, director of On Falling (2024), will be present for a post-screening discussion of her film at the Norton Park Centre on 22nd May, alongside members of The Worker's Observatory who will be talking about their campaign for worker's rights in the Capital. The film is screening across community hubs and libraries in Edinburgh during May 2025 and tells the story of Aurora, a Portuguese migrant working as a warehouse picker. Tickets available via the link.” - Thanks to Morvern Cunningham, Local Cinema Coordinator, for sharing this.
📌 “Seanchoíche is a storytelling night founded in Dublin. We are coming to Leith Arches in Edinburgh on Thursday 15th May for a night of storytelling all on the theme of 'My Love for Edinburgh'. Looking for more storytellers and tickets currently on sale!” - Thanks to Seanchoíche for sharing this.
📌 “Medfest Edinburgh at the University of Edinburgh would like to invite you for screenings and discussion on how film can impact medicine and how medicine impacts film. Medfest brings medical doctors and film-makers together. We aim to impact the art, health and cultural sectors in a completely new and creative way, by raising public awareness of the nature of certain health topics, stigmas, social topics & conditions; as well as performing workshops and panel discussions on such topics in order to connect different sectors and provide networking opportunities.” - Thanks to Medfest Edinburgh for sharing this. It’s on Friday 23 May and free tickets are here.
📌 “Botanica Scotia presents an exhibition from 25 - 20 May (10am - 4pm), at The Custom House Gallery, celebrating Botanical Art Worldwide Day on the 18th May. Our exhibition shows crops grown locally in Scotland. Come and talk to the artists and find out about their journey to illustrate heritage crops in the challenging weather conditions of 2024.” - Thanks to Marianne Hazlewood, Botanical Artist, for sharing this.
📌 “MOANA3 is a new showcase of artists from around the Pacific region, the third in an ongoing exhibition series at Scott Lawrie Gallery in Edinburgh. Opening event is Thurs 15 May, 5-7pm at 2 Chuckie Pend (land behind Filmhouse), Edinburgh. Pop in for a drink, all welcome!” - Thanks to the gallery for sharing this.
📌 “As the use of AI accelerates across the creative industries, urgent questions are being asked about authorship, ownership, and fairness. In recent months, Melissa and Caroline of Edinburgh Futures Institute—alongside academic peers and industry leaders—have responded to two key consultations: the House of Lords’ inquiry into ‘Creative Tech and Scaling AI’ and the Intellectual Property Office’s ‘Copyright and AI’ review.” - Thanks to Zoe Farrugia, Creative Edinburgh, for sharing this. Get tickets for ‘The Future of Copyright and AI’ on Tuesday 20 May on Eventbrite.
📌 “Science, space and mathematics-inspired art exhibition ESCAPE VELOCITY opens at Sett Studios this Friday, and continues over the weekend. Launch: Friday 16th May, 6-9pm, Exhibition continues Saturday, Sunday, Monday, 11am to 5pm.” - Thanks to Felicity Inkpen and Rory MacLeod, Sett Studios, for sharing this.
📌 “🎨 We’re inviting self-identifying women to submit artwork for our upcoming exhibition Creative Connections – A Healing Journey at The Salisbury Centre. No professional experience needed — this is about creative expression, community, and shared stories. Submit your piece by 19th May and be part of this beautiful celebration of women’s creativity!” - Thanks to the organisers for sharing this.
📌 “Following on from last year’s sell-out success of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Edinburgh Acting School is back with A WINTER'S TALE at the Church Hill Theatre. Combining Shakespeare’s text with new material from award-winning playwright Jen McGregor, A Winter’s Tale: Pursued By a Bear turns the original play into a queer fairytale about love, trust, and bewaring of bears in unexpected places. Come and join the party on Friday 6th June at 8pm and Saturday 7th June at 3.30pm!” - Thanks to Edinburgh Acting School for sharing this.
📌 “To celebrate the Cannes Film Festival, the French Film Festival are teaming up with the Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival to bring you two Cannes-themed films at the French Institute on Friday 16 and Saturday 17 May (one Spanish and one French). Both films will be accompanied by showreels and introductions of what and who is hot on the Riviera, followed by a glass of rosé!” - Thanks to French Film Festival UK for sharing this.