🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 4 - 10 June 2025
Porty Pride weekend, Cymera at the Pleasance, Hidden Door countdown, £5k photography prize + what did the first Edinburghers look like?
Welcome to the 91st weekly the Culture Minute: a round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative news, events, jobs and opportunities. It’s a week of launch parties, live music and lots of new opportunities. There’s more to Edinburgh than just the big ticket events and I hope you agree the Minute covers as much as possible. If the email gets cut off, please click here to read it online.
And if I’ve missed anything please get in touch. Thanks again to everyone who contributes!
👀 The most-viewed links from last week’s Edinburgh Culture Minute:
- 🎬 Filmhouse progresses towards reopening this month.
- 🎨 Edinburgh Art Festival line-up announced.
- 📚 Book Festival announces first names (on sale now).
News:
🎹 Tributes are being paid to Brian Kellock, described as ‘one of Scotland’s most talented musicians’, who died last week aged 63. - Jane Bradley, The Scotsman.
⮑ Tommy Smith, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Head of Jazz, said:
“We shared hundreds of concerts together. His talent was immeasurable. He had a way of playing that could break your heart one moment and swing it sky-high the next. That kind of artistry is rare. That kind of person even rarer. To those of us lucky enough to know him, play with him, laugh with him — this is a grief that runs deep. He was a supremely beautiful soul, and his absence will be felt profoundly.”
⮑ Kellock was due to play at this weekend’s Leith Jazz & Blues festival. Instead of canceling the gig, organisers got his family’s permission to go ahead, inviting people ‘to share stories and fond memories’ of Brian at the Bowlers Rest community pub in Leith from 3pm on Saturday.
👀 People in Edinburgh have an opportunity to help inform the independent Review of Creative Scotland later this month. The review’s chair, Angela Leitch CBE, is expected to publish recommendations in November. Before that, she wants to hear from creatives and ‘organisations outside the culture sector who are directly impacted by Creative Scotland’. The venue isn’t listed online yet, but the Edinburgh event is scheduled for 23 June and you can find some more details here. To participate in the discussions, you have to email: creativescotlandreview@gov.scot
🎪 The community-run Meadows Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary this weekend. - Full details are here.
💀 A new exhibition opens on Friday at St Giles’ Cathedral aiming to reveal the ‘hidden faces of Edinburgh’s Medieval citizens’. Titled ‘Edinburgh’s First Burghers’, it features visual projections of five early Edinburgh people by prolific video artist Mettje Hunneman in collaboration with Dr Maria Maclennan. The ‘craniofacial approximations’ are based on the work of archaeologists, scientists and experts. - More details here.
🔊 This month’s EHFM Culture Minute is a belter. You’ll learn and you’ll laugh. Tune-in here.
🎨 There’s a fun Friday evening planned at Leith Cricket Club, where local artists and performers team up for an ‘interactive sports day’ event curated by Sett Studios. Performing: Lisa the Beauty Queen and Lou Mclean, DJ set by Woodless Pearl and visuals by Max Candeland - Sliding scale tickets are here.
🎨 Hidden Door at The Paper Factory begins next week. Organisers have put out a helpful guide on how to get there in this video.
⮑ The event, running from Wednesday 11th to Sunday 15 June, brings together more than 100 creatives offering live music, immersive art installations, dance performances, poetry, spoken word, unique collaborations and more. - The full line-up is here.
⮑ Among the headliners are Copenhagen trio Smag På Dig Selv, who are also on the cover of June’s new edition of The List. - Also in this issue: Vic Galloway’s gig recommendations + the return of the Filmhouse. - More details here and you can read the mag online here.
🎤 This week at The Queen’s Hall: Martha Wainwright tonight + Pillz the Energiser + AKA Prince + Aiysha at AMPLIFI on Sunday. - Full listings here.
🏳️🌈 The annual Porty Pride begins on Friday with dozens of events on all weekend, including:
Friday 6pm: The Story Sessions hosted by Soapbox and Tribe Porty.
Friday 7pm: Porty Pride Film Night.
Saturday 10am: Daytime Disco at Portobello Town Hall.
Saturday 11am: The Porty Pride Dog Walk.
Saturday 12pm: ‘Protests, parades and pinkwashing: the politics of Pride, past and present and future’ at Portobello Library.
Saturday 7pm: Porty Pride Ball (sold out but the waiting list is here).
Sunday 11am - 4pm: Support the Makers Market at Porty Town Hall.
🏳️🌈 There’s even more happening across the rest of Edinburgh for Pride month. - Check out My Queer Diary for this week’s listings, including swimming, fencing, storytelling, queer data and drag.
🪑 Field Studio in Causewayside has creative space for hire, ranging from one desk to entire rooms or the whole studio. - More details here.
📆 For more local creative events, check out Naomi Head’s Good Egg Project newsletter. This week: The Loud Poets Open Mic is back at The Canons’ Gait, Words & Friends with Orémi at August_21 in Newington + Queer Folks’ Tales at the Scottish Storytelling Centre + so much more!
🎭 What's on Edinburgh's stages this week?
With thanks to All Edinburgh Theatre’s Thom Dibdin for sharing this:
Amidst a surprisingly busy card, the final show of the David Greig era at the Lyceum and the latest Terry Pratchett adaptation from Strawmoddie are our picks of the week.
Greig has not had his troubles to seek as Lyceum AD, what with Covid and all, but he has certainly carried through his declared ambition of opening up the theatre to the whole of Edinburgh as a city.
The final production before new AD James Brining announces the Lyceum's 60th season on Tuesday is The Mountaintop(ends 21 June: tickets), which confronts life, death and the idea of legacy through the thoughts of Martin Luther King Jr, in his hotel room after giving his "I Have A Dream" speech and on the eve of his assassination.
Strawmoddie are back at the Cymera festival at the Pleasance with Feet of Clay (Thur - Sun: tickets). Another Steve Briggs adaptation, amidst the comedy of a whodunnit pastiche, this dwells on the nature of life and social stratification in a time of unrest.
Ramesh Meyyappan brings Lear, his take on the Shakespeare play, to the Traverse (Thur - Sat: tickets) which also has the return of Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe's Every Brilliant Thing (ends Sat: tickets)
The Clown and the Wolfman ride down to Leith Theatre with the tour of the new musical adaptation of cult Edinburgh-set movie Restless Natives (Sat 7 - Sat 21 June: tickets).
There is a lot of Scottish Opera: The Festival Theatre has The Merry Widow (Thurs, Sat: tickets) and the double bill of G&S's Trial by Jury with new operetta A Matter of Misconduct! (Fri: tickets). While the SO's Pop Up Opera is at the Union Canal Basin as part of the Canal Tour (Sat: details).
At the Church Hill, Edinburgh Acting School have a new take on A Winter's Tale by local writer and director Jen McGregor (Fri/Sat: tickets). And back at the Pleasance, local performer Debbie Cannon has the intriguingly titled Flora MacDonald and Zombies (Sat/Sun: tickets).
Almost there: Moulin Rouge! The Musical at the Playhouse ends on the 14th (tickets). The final shows are selling fast so get in quick!
Æ's various listings pages, all linked here, have more details as well as shows dropping before next week's Culture Minute.
📌 Edinburgh Culture Minute Community Noticeboard
📌 “Cymera: Scoland's Festival of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Writing returns to The Pleasance for a jam-packed weekend of author talks and writing workshops. Guests include Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tasha Suri, John Gwynne, Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, Peter F. Hamilton and many more. Visit our Creator's Hall featuring local makers, play boardgames or RPGs in our Games Space plus theatre with Dune! The Musical, Terry Pratchett's Feet of Clay and Flora MacDonald and Zombies. Friday 6th June - Sunday 8th June.” - Thanks to Ann Landmann, Festival Director, for sharing this.
📌 “FERNS, an Edinburgh-based local jazz-fusion band, are looking for a SAX or TRUMPET player! Taking inspiration from the likes of BADBADNOTGOOD, Hiatus Kayote, and The Comet is Coming, we're currently working on a third album and need a talented horn player to help us. Listen to our tunes via this link and if you're interested in joining us contact us via email or on Instagram!” - Thanks to the band for sharing this.
📌 “This weekend (6 & 7 June), Lyra presents Bright & Wild 2025 – a free festival with children and teens at its heart. The festival will celebrate the talent and creativity of children and teens from Greater Craigmillar who take part in Lyra’s Young Artists programme.” - Thanks to Anna Plasberg-Hill, Engagement Producer, for sharing this.
📌 “Art27 Scotland invites you to join us for a one-off world-class cultural event during Refugee Week. "Culture=Life, A Palestinian Artist Programme June 20-24 includes a powerful one-man show The Horse of Jenin by Palestinian comedy club, an evening of extraordinary music and history with the renowned singer Reem Kelani & Trio, and a provocative performance lecture by award winning choreographer Farah Saleh plus more. All tickets available from website and are 'Pay What You Can" (various venues) All are welcome.” - Thanks to Helen Trew, Director Art27 Scotland, for sharing this.