June 12, 2025
On Friday 13 June will mark the midway point for Hidden Door 2025 with a packed line up. Expect acclaimed singer-songwriters, post-punk, aerial spectacular alongside powerful spoken word, dancers and DJs.
Here’s how your Friday visit might look – although your exact path through the factory is entirely up to you..
Each day from Thursday to Sunday, we open at 1pm to allow people of all ages to explore the site and stunning artwork for free. From 6pm, the event becomes ticketed and over 18s only.
If you arrive early enough, you’ll have a chance to explore the Room To Play. Nestled within the office block (the first zone that you’ll discover upon arrival at The Paper Factory), this performance space will host Reimagined Ruins – a jungle of real and artificial plants; a room filled with projections and interactive installations that use visual programming and electronic sensors to respond to your movements and sound. Reimagined Ruins is open to explore from 1pm-6pm, Thursday to Sunday.
The live action kicks off promptly at 6pm, so be sure to get here in good time. Head to the Factory Floor for our first live band, the incomparable HENS BENS bring loud noises and brightly coloured nonsense which will scratch an itch you didn’t even know you had.
Also at 6pm, seek out Sweætshops® in the Machine Room to witness a provocative 15-track music-video installation about Elvis, the veneration of problematic men, cultural appropriation, imposter syndrome and primordial loneliness
At 6:30pm, be sure to catch Mike McKenzie, winner of the inaugural BBC Radio Scotland Singer/Songwriter of the Year Award. His laid back, inclusive shows have proved a smash with audiences around the UK and beyond.
Also at this time, Scott Redmond (vocals) and Andy Bullick (guitar) perform as FEVER PEACH – your favourite post-punk-music-spoken word-comedy-cult who have performed at festivals including Latitude and Edinburgh Fringe, competed in the Scottish National Poetry Slam and have just become semi-finalists in the Musical Comedy Awards 2025.
Or you could wander through to the Crane Shed for Dorine Mugisha’s Embodied Freedom. This bold and evocative dance piece, crafted in collaboration with the Whacking Scotland community, features poetic words written by Adam Benmakhlouf. Rooted in the expressive language of punking, posing, and whacking, inspired from the underground gay clubs in the 1970s, this performance is a dynamic act of storytelling where movement becomes both protest and poetry.
Like any good festival, Hidden Door is a “choose your own adventure” experience offering a range of paths to follow.
You might check out Alice Faye in the Machine Room, the Glasgow singer-songwriter and pianist creating intricate musical tapestries with a timeless yet fresh voice. Alice’s evocative approach to storytelling is infused into each note, creating music that drips with authenticity, drawing listeners into compelling narratives that explore the full spectrum of emotions and complexities of human experience.
Or you might head to the Factory Floor for ‘Ghost in the Machine’, a site-responsive performance developed by Jill Martin Boualaxai. The piece blends physical theatre, dance, live drumming, visual art, and costume, evolving over time into performance drawings and sculptural traces that blur the boundaries between ritual, history, and the factory’s own mythology.
At 7.40pm, get yourself to The Link for Eszter Marsalko‘s “We have all been here – now into the light“. This is a multi-disciplinary installation and performance, combining video and audio work with short live encounters to explore moments from the factory’s past, present and imagined future.
Or you might grab a fresh drink and rock up to the Jack Daniels Stage to watch PVC. Formed in Glasgow in late 2023, they’ve been making a noise with their addictive blend of post-punk and rock influences, delivered with punchy lyrics, makes for a bouncing live show that has generated a following in grassroots venues.
Be sure to make time to grab some delicious hot street food from our outside vendors before heading to the Long Room for spoken word by Julia Sorensen, returning to Hidden Door with a work entitled “The many-faced artist as a young woman’s portrait” – a tragi-comic tapestry of roles that a young femme artist takes on to develop her body of work, each poem a different (and facetious) ‘face’ of the artist.
Over in the Crane Shed, Queeran, the Farmers Son is a deeply personal dance piece by Kieran Brown, a semi-autobiographical solo work inspired by his experiences growing up rurally, farming and riding horses, and looking at how this environment affected his sense of self and queer identity.
At 8:30pm in the Machine Room, Voka Gentle are a trio of songwriters, producers and multi-instrumentalists tearing up the rulebook with their unique blend of earthy psychedelia, motorik beats, collaged soundscapes and harmonised vocals. Recent collaborators include the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and cult folk chanteuse BELLS, who both appear on the band’s acclaimed second album.
Also at this time, a second chance to catch ‘Ghost in the Machine’ on the Factory Floor, or perhaps wander away from the performances to explore some of the incredible visual art installations filling every corner of this huge space.
At 9.15pm on the Jack Daniels Stage, we are delighted to welcome back the joyous Tinderbox Orchestra, bringing together rappers and singers with soaring strings, heavy brass, woodwind, and thundering bass and drums. The collective combine original music and movement to transform preconceptions of what an orchestra can be, with a set packed with original music, movement and unexpected collaborations. An unforgettable live music experience.
Meanwhile, back in the Crane Shed’s Dance Space, powered by FunktionCreep, prepare for a jaw-dropping collaboration. ‘SPECTRAL’ brings to life the history of this awe-inspiring site with a powerful and visually stunning immersive experience. Lit up by a fusion of light and lasers, performers spin 30 feet into the air whilst a live soundtrack embraces the cavernous reverb of the performance space.
We’re delighted to present the award-winning Elephant Sessions, in place of Erland Cooper who has sadly had to withdraw due to unforeseen circumstances. Creating a progressive blend of intricate tunes, with a bass and drum heavy backline, their music combines the very best of trad, funk and electronica, resulting in a new and exciting sound.
Meanwhile, on the Factory Floor, you can see another of our unique Creative Collaborations: ‘Production Line of Dreams’ is a poetic and psychedelic ensemble blending soundscapes, spoken word, and rhythmic loops to reflect factory production cycles.
The live stages finish up at 11pm, but there’s still two solid hours for you to explore the site, immerse yourself in the art installations, grab another drink and finally head towards the Club Space where the Paradise Palms Records DJ Takeover will be in full swing.
On the bill from 9pm – 1am we have:
Asa Tate – AKA London based DJ & Producer Ned Dickinson, who has released music for the better part of a decade under his Tech Support alias, playing around the UK & Europe and having gained support from top DJs and radio tastemakers, including Pete Tong (BBC Radio 1), Tom Ravenscroft (BBC 6 Music), Huey Morgan (BBC 6 Music), Maribou State, Jamie XX, Bradley Zero and Moxie.
discjocelyne – DJ, EHFM Mornings host and frontwoman of local party starters Bikini Body (Optimo Music Rocks). Expect everything on the punk-meets-dance music spectrum.
Jacuzzi General – Edinburgh-based producer and label boss of Paradise Palms Record, the electronic artist specialises in pleasure-soaked dance music. With a sound doused in Nu-disco, eastern folk and surfed-out guitar lines, his music brings a uniquely euphoric energy to dance floors.
Mytron (Live) – London based DJ / producer / multi-instrumentalist, with releases on Multi Culti, XXX, Invisible Inc, Calypso and Bongo Joe. His hardware live set is a chuggy, druggy, fuggy ride through tweaking acid, raw funk and tripped-out melodies – setting the scene for an inevitable soaring segue into hazy transcendence. Expect a finely-fused psychedelic journey through groove, pausing for stopovers in rainforest rhythm and intergalactic electronica.
So come down to The Paper Factory for that Friday Feeling – tickets going fast!
