Edinburgh Culture Minute 🪩 22 - 28 April 2026
Boards Of Canada confirm new album, Hidden Door festival line-up revealed, Ottolenghi opening on George Street, First Date romance festival + a big batch of new local creative jobs
👋 Hello and welcome to the 128th weekly Culture Minute: a round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative news, events, jobs and opportunities. As always, if I’ve missed anything please get in touch. Thanks to everyone who contributes!
👀 The Culture Minute definitely takes longer than a minute to read, these days. So if this edition is too long and gets cut off in your inbox, you can read it online here.
👀 The most-viewed links from last week’s Edinburgh Culture Minute:
- 🥧 Lunchtime theatre: A Play, A Pie and A Pint at the Roxy.
- 🎭 Update on new Fringe HQ on Infirmary Street.
- 📲 Comedians get creative on social media to sell out Fringe shows in advance.
- 🎤 Hit singer Macy Gray at The Queen's Hall next month.
- ✍️ Open calls and paid writing opportunities in the The Good Egg Project newsletter.
🗞️ News
🔊 Edinburgh-ish ambient electronica duo Boards Of Canada have confirmed their new album after 13 years. Titled 'Inferno', it's due for release on 29 May. - Pre-order and local stockist details are on the band's website and there's another sinister-sounding new clip on Instagram. The 18-song tracklist and album art are in Alex Suskind's report for Pitchfork.
Alex Suskind
🎭 Another week, another big festival line-up announcement. Hidden Door festival is planned for 3 - 7 June at The Paper Factory near the Gyle. The 15.5-acre industrial site will (for the final time) be transformed for the arts, with more than 100 creatives on a bill of live music, art installations, dance performances, poetry and spoken word. Newly announced musical acts include: BIG WETT, ICHI, Cowboy Hunters, Sarah/Shaun, Makeness, Jenny Hval, Jenny Hval, Valtos, High Water Mark, Fred Deakin of Lemon Jelly, Tinderbox Orchestra, Dara Dubh and Lauren Auder. - Tickets are now available and the full line-up is here.
- I know for a fact that many Minute readers are foodies, so here's the Hidden Door festival's food and drink line-up: Harajuku Kitchen, El Dorado, House of Tapas, Chicken Skoop, Big Blu, Artisan Coffee, Bellfield Brewery and Great Grog.
- Hidden Door is a volunteer-run charity, funded through ticket sales, sponsorship and fundraising. All its income goes back into the festival to ensure creative contributors are fairly paid.
Hidden Door
🍽️ Renowned chef Yotam Ottolenghi, credited with 'changing London’s eating habits forever', plans to open his first Scottish restaurant on George Street in autumn. It will be run by Edinburgh-based Neil John Campbell, who has been Ottolenghi's Executive Head Chef for a decade. - Dram Scotland has more details.
- Founder Yotam Ottolenghi said: "We’ve been dreaming about opening in Edinburgh for years, at last the time is right. The city has a brilliant dining culture and access to incredible local produce. Neil, our executive chef, is from here, so it’s made the whole thing feel special from the very beginning."
- The new restaurant is planned at 92 George Street (map link) formerly home to Ragu, which announced its closure earlier this month. The new restaurant already has a page on Ottolenghi's website and a mailing list.
- ⮑ Yotam will be discussing his new cook book, Simple Too, on 8 September at Ps & Gs Church on York Place. Tickets are available here.
👀 BELOW THE PAYWALL: this week's big new gig & show tickets, stage listings, the creative community noticeboard and a huge new batch of local creative industries jobs and opportunities...
