Edinburgh Culture Minute 🪩 15 - 21 October 2025
Fireworks fest off, Leith Postal Exchange exhibition, paper factory Paint Jam, Callum Beattie at the castle, Cowgate Block Party & much more.
Party people! Culture vultures! Curious creepers… Welcome to the 104th weekly Culture Minute: a round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative news, events, jobs and opportunities. It’s a long one and I’ve done by best to kindaaa organise it all. If I’ve missed anything please get in touch. Thanks to everyone who contributes! You make Edinburgh so much better than any one website can capture. Enjoy and please feel free to forward this email to a pal.
👀 The most-viewed links from last week’s Edinburgh Culture Minute:
- 🍻 Oktoberfest event bins 7,000 litres of beer and mountain of food.
- 📚 Banned Books display at The Edinburgh Bookshop.
- 🎨 Courses and workshops at the Edinburgh Printmakers studios this month.
🗞️ News:
🎆 The Ingliston Fawkes Festival fireworks show at the Royal Highland Centre - billed as ‘Scotland’s biggest Bonfire Night celebration’ - has been called off. - Exclusive by Brian Ferguson in The Herald.
✂️ Opening today: The Postal Exchange exhibition at Leith Makers. Curator and exhibiting artist Miriam Morris told the Minute: “Since early 2025, 24 participants have been exchanging art materials via the post. The resulting work—comprising collage, photomontage, cyanotype, and mixed media—will be showcased in The Postal Exchange exhibition at Leith Makers: until 26 October.”
⮑ After answering an open call on Instagram, the 24 artists were paired up at random thanks to good old snail mail. The result is deliberately analogue, as Morris tells Claire Sawers in The List: “It’s very different from dropping something into Dropbox. The tactile side was a joy and it was great to send something out into the world and not quite know what will become of it.”
- ⮑ “There is the opportunity for visitors to join in by contributing to a massive ‘living collage’ blank canvas, which will form an artwork over time. There will also be a commemorative ‘zine to accompany the exhibition.” - David White, Art Mag.
- ⮑ The Postal Exchange is on until 26 October at 105 Leith Walk.
📌 The venues taking part in next month’s Leith Creative Trail are being revealed daily over on the event’s Instagram page, featuring beautiful illustrations and artwork by Cat Gordon and Zoë Brown.
📸 Opening on Saturday at National Galleries Scotland: Portrait: Alfred Buckham | Daredevil Photographer. It’s the first major exhibition dedicated to the man behind some of the most iconic aerial photographs ever taken, including the epic one below. The exhibition is free. Details of launch events (including ‘Cloudspotting for Beginners’) are here.
- ⮑ Catherine Muirden has been appointed as the new chair of the National Galleries of Scotland, taking over from Benny Higgins. She has previously served on arts boards including as vice chair of Scottish Ballet, chair of the Fruitmarket Gallery, and as a current trustee of Sistema Scotland. - More details are in Arts Professional.
🎨 The former paper factory at the Gyle will be used on Saturday for an all-day Paint Jam event. Hosts, Edinburgh Mural Festival, say: “We’ll be open from 9:30am to 7:30pm, bringing together the street art community to transform the vast factory floor in a celebration of muralism and graffiti in Scotland. The day will be a public-free space, allowing artists to create in a relaxed, low pressure environment.” - Details on how to register for a space are here.
✍️ There’s a beginner-friendly writing workshop at the Brass Monkey (at the Shore) hosted by Naomi Head of The Good Egg Project on Thursday evening. Full details and soooo many more events are in the project’s latest edition here:
🎸 Three Cowgate venues (Sneaky Petes, Legends and Bongo Club) are teaming up for a new gig series called Cowgate Block Party. - More details here.
🖼️ Next weekend Fruitmarket is hosting a two-day showcase of its year-long Future Makers programme, with talks and events including: a coin jewellery workshop with Morven Mulgrew, a ceramic cup workshop with Rosa Park and and intro to darning with textile specialist Second Cashmere. - More details and bookings here.
👀 If this edition is too long and gets cut off in your inbox, read it online here.
🎭 What's on Edinburgh's stages this week?
Here’s the man-in-the-know, Thom Dibdin of All Edinburgh Theatre:
There are a couple of real biggies on this week, and the last chance to catch Uma Nada Rajah’s NHS drama, Black Hole Sign.
At the Lyceum, James Brining gets his tenure as AD off to a soaring start with an accessible, frankly hilarious at times and profoundly human production of Chekhov’s The Seagull (★★★★☆ Impressive) (ends 1 Nov: Tickets).
Yes, Caroline Quentin’s horrific mother, Arkadina, is stellar, but by golly don’t the whole cast act their socks off. With special shouts out to Tallulah Greive (Masha) and Harmony Rose-Bremner (Nina), who came up through local youth theatre.
Act fast if you want to see Scottish Ballet’s Mary Queen of Scots (you do!) at the Festival Theatre (Thurs - Sat: Tickets). It’s back-row seats in the gods, only...
Uma Nada Rajah’s NHS drama Black Hole Sign (★★★★☆ Sadly angry) ends Saturday (Tickets). Compelling, tremendously well performed and almost unbelievably angry, it is both bleak and funny.
Local company ThrowPoi give juggling a better name with a matinee of CATCH! at Assembly Roxy (Sat: Tickets) and Bedlam is getting in on the performed reading tip with Read The Room (Fri: Tickets): two plays by local playwrights Rose Sarafilovic and Till Schindler.
Finally: Superfan’s Stuntman at Summerhall (Sat: Details) has been cancelled due, ironically, to a performer injury. But Elvis Tribute Artists will still unite at the Playhouse (Sun: Tickets).
Full details on Æ’s listings pages: all linked here.
🎸 Big tickets this week:
🎵 Tonight at The Queen’s Hall: The AMPLIFI gig series has performances by Theon Cross, Azamiah and Gaia. Curated by Arusa Qureshi and Halina Rifai. - Tickets are here. It’s part of busy week at The Queen’s Hall: AMPLIFI tonight, Harben Kay on Thursday, John Grant on Friday, Ziggy Alberts on Saturday, Mary Gauthier on Sunday. See the venue’s full listings here.
🏰 The Callum Beattie story has a new chapter. Having started playing for free in local bars two decades ago, the singer has just announced a concert next summer at Edinburgh Castle. It’s on Friday 10 July and tickets go on sale on Friday.
🎸 Local singer-songwriter-producer Mark Ellis aka Fair Weather Son is playing Sneaky Pete’s on Monday. Described by Jim Gellatly as ‘Timeless Americana and New Wave with Elvis Costello vibes.’ Support from Craig Gould and Adriana Spina. - Tickets here.
🎤 The Scottish International Storytelling Festival returns next week. It starts on 22 October and runs until 1 November. “Over 11 days, some of the North’s most celebrated storytellers will join leading voices from Scotland to bring a feast of world-class storytelling, music, workshops, and shared experiences to Edinburgh and venues across Scotland.” - A PDF of the full programme is here and you can browse events on the website here. The Storytelling Centre has an easy-enter competition for free passes here. Before that, on Thursday 16 October, the venue hosts the next Loud Poets spoken word night.
📕 Author of the Edinburgh Nights series T. L. Huchu is at The Portobello Bookshop on Tuesday to launch the fifth and final mystery-filled instalment series, Secrets of the First School. Huchu will be in conversation with Ann Landmann, founder and director of Cymera. - Tickets are here.
🏴 Thursday at the Corn Exchange: Auld Pals: Stars of Still Game, featuring Mark Cox, Sanjeev Kohli, Jane McCarry, Gavin Mitchell, Paul Riley. - Tickets.
- ⮑ Greg Hemphill, another Still Game star, joins Jules Wilson Nimmo to talk about their BBC TV series and book on wild swimming. - Friday at 7pm, Pilrig St. Paul’s, tickets via Toppings.
📌 Edinburgh Culture Minute Community Noticeboard
📌 “An exhibition of Scottish artists Andrew Radford and Susie Redman at Upright Gallery. Andrew reuses food packaging to create simple, rhythmic tiles, stained with clay slip and natural colouring. Susie grows and gathers her own fibres along with natural objects to create intricate woven vessels and panels.” - Thanks to Ian Farmer for sharing this.
📌 “Friday 17 October: Join Stills’ exhibiting artist Matthew Arthur Williams, Turner Prize nominee Ingrid Pollard and Creative Practitioner Lisa Fannen for an evening of conversation, connecting the themes and forms of their work. Collectively, their practices span photography, installation, writing and performance.” - Thanks to Daisy from Stills Centre for Photography for sharing this.
📌 “This coming Sunday Su-a Lee & Hamish Napier are in Concert at Portobello Town Hall on October 19th at 3pm. Two amazing musicians who don’t often get the chance to play together. Some tickets still remaining but selling fast!” - Thanks to Mark Tweedie for sharing this.
📌 “Announcement of the line-up for the book launch of North Bridge: Where We Travelled on 25 Octo at Charteris Centre, St Ninian’s Hall. It is an innovative multi-genre anthology of speculative, historical & contemporary fiction, poetry in Scots & English, memoir, a script and a game from 22 local Edinburgh writers, inspired by the iconic North Bridge – a vital artery of Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital city since 1763 – and it’s reach beyond. Bargain tickets here.” - Thanks to ‘Minute subscriber Alan’ for sharing this.
📌 “Christian Aid Art Sale, Friday 24th and Saturday 25th October. A sale of paintings, prints and a few books. There will be a cafe on Saturday 25th from 10 -2. We are still gratefully receiving donations, please get in touch if you an artwork you would like to donate to the sale.” - Thanks to Julia Forsyth for sharing this.
📌 “Sat 25th Oct - Fri 14th Nov at Morningside Library: The Astley Ainslie Oral History Exhibition has brought stories of the Astley Ainslie to life, featuring portraits and soundbites of staff, patients, and lovers of the grounds over the years.” - Thanks to the Astley Ainslie Community Trust for sharing this.
📌 “New Edinburgh-based publishers Uncertain Stories are launching ‘Little Uncertainties’ - little books, given away free, to share the love of short stories. You can pick one up now in Topping & Co and Golden Hare, with more bookshops around the city to follow.” - Thanks to Uncertain Stories for sharing this.
🤝 This week’s local creative jobs and opportunities. Find your future here…
🌍 Culture for Climate Scotland (based on Rose Street) is looking for a Communications and operations assistant. Salary: £24,996. Deadline: 20 October. - Apply here.
🎄 Unique Assembly is looking for a Social Media Coordinator for its winter festival campaigns. Rate of Pay: £107 per day. Deadline 31 October. - More details here.
✍️ UNPAID role (boo), but still potentially an interesting project for someone: The National Museum of Scotland, is looking for a Shorthand Transcription Volunteer. They’ll be going through handwritten diary entries from the Eileen Crowford Collection at the Chambers Street museum. Closing date: 3 November. - More details are here.
🎭 Applications are open for Summerhall Arts Studios. The spaces include a £3,000 budget, thanks to a partnership with Creative Scotland. Apply by 2 November. - More details are here.
🖼️ Art in Healthcare has a Trainee Technician Apprenticeship opportunity. It’s based at their art store in Leith in a role that is “very hands-on and will develop technical skills necessary for maintaining and managing an art collection. The main purpose of the role is to get the 300 artworks in our Edinburgh Art Store ‘exhibition ready’ by undertaking a programme of review, maintenance and repair.” Salary: £22,932 per annum [pro rata] with an increase from 1 April 2026 . Deadline: 10 November. - Apply here.
🟨 The Edinburgh International Festival is hiring a Development Assistant. Salary: £23,400 - £26,500. Deadline: 26 October. - Apply here.
🎭 The Edinburgh Playhouse has a six month freelance role for an Associate Artist (creative writer) to lead creative writing workshops. Pay: £6,300 (35 days at £180). Deadline: 17 October. - Apply here.
💡 The Lyceum theatre is recruiting for a Deputy Head of Lighting. Salary: £26,500. Deadline: 9 November. - Apply here.
👍 STILL OPEN ↴