Edinburgh Culture Minute 🪩 29 April - 5 May 2026
Ditch the doom on Mayday, Book Festival stars announced, see Mànran at Porty Festival this weekend + Strictly Come Dancing professionals in town
Welcome to the 129th edition of the Culture Minute: your weekly round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative news, events, jobs and opportunities. 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:
- 🍽️ Ottolenghi opening on George Street.
- 🎭 Hidden Door festival line-up revealed.
- 🥧 Lunchtime theatre: A Play, A Pie and A Pint at the Roxy.
- 🔊 Edinburgh-ish duo Boards of Canada reveal new album 'Inferno'.
- ✍️ Open calls and paid writing opportunities in the The Good Egg Project newsletter.
🗞️ News
📚 The 'front list' line-up of big names at this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival has been announced. Appearing at the McEwan Hall in August: Kiran Desai, Lyse Doucet, Diana Gabaldon, Mel Giedroyc, Lewis Goodall & Edward Wong, Tom Holland, Charlie Mackesy, Val McDermid & Jo Sharp, David Olusoga, Ann Patchett, Elif Shafak, Douglas Stuart, Kae Tempest, Colson Whitehead, Jimmy Wales & Cory Doctorow.
- Tickets will be available on Tuesday 5 May from 10am. - The full line-up is here.
- Here's coverage from Jane Bradley in The Scotsman + Kevin Fullerton in The List.
🔥 Tickets are sold out but if you're near Calton Hill tomorrow night you're sure to see, hear and possibly even smell this year's Beltane Fire Festival. The performance of stories and rituals runs from 7.30pm until 1.30am. - More details here. To get notified if any tickets become available, join the waitlist here. Good luck.
🎉 Scottish trad supergroup Mànran headline Porty Festival on Saturday night at Portobello Town Hall. There's plenty of live music across the weekend as well as workshops, the dog show, sandcastle competition and much more. - The full line-up is here.
🏨 Plans to revamp the now empty Rose Street Theatre building (originally the Charlotte Baptist Chapel) with a 43-bedroom hotel with a rooftop bar were approved by councillors this morning. - The plans are here. Previous plans for a pub were rejected before Morningbridge Limited and Anta Design stepped in with the hotel plan. - Here's a report by Thom Dibdin of All Edinburgh Theatre.
- Council planning convener Hal Osler told the meeting: "It is a beautiful building. It's so important in our city that we actually reutilise and give fresh life. For individuals going to stay there it will be a phenomenally amazing experience to be able to experience there. Plus also the addition of having another rooftop experience to be able to view the centre of the city I think will be pretty amazing."
🎭 Capital Theatres has announced 32 new productions at the Festival, King’s and Studio theatres between this May and next May 2027. - Thom Dibdin, All Edinburgh Theatre.
🗞️ A 'power list' of the 50 most influential names in Scottish culture will be published tomorrow (Thursday) for the launch of a new Herald Arts monthly pull-out supplement. - Brian Ferguson has the details in The Herald.
Brian Ferguson
☕️ The organisers of CreativeMornings/Edinburgh are looking for volunteers including: photographers, videographers, comms specialists and 'enthusiastic morning people'. - More details here.
⚽️ Scotland's (Edinburgh-based) National Makar Peter Mackay is inviting you to participate in a collective poem by the Tartan Army and the people of Scotland to send the national men's team on their way to the 2026 football World Cup. - You can submit 1 or 2 lines via the Scottish Poetry Library website here.
🌯 The Neighbourgood Market returns to Stockbridge from Friday. - The full line-up of traders is here.
🎙️ The locals behind The Edinburgh Society of Unapologetically Imperfect Mothers Podcast have announced two Fringe festival shows. - More details here.
🎤 'If your flyer or poster is AI, I am not going' - There's a good discussion on the Edinburgh Fringe Reddit about flyers.
AI Flyers look terrible
by u/MisterKemp1947 in edinburghfringe
