UPDATE: yes, this was an April Fools joke. Stay tuned for news on our actual venue later this week!

Today we share exciting news about our venue for May’s birthday party – we are going to refill Edinburgh’s Nor Loch to create a watery wonderland in the heart of the city.

Who would have thought, when we commissioned local poet and provocateur Ross McCleary for Hidden Door 2023, that his work would have been so prophetic?

Ross came to us with a conceptual performance piece about rewilding – rewilding everything from golf courses to Dundee. But his most ambitious goal was to rewild Edinburgh city centre, the very jewel of the city’s Princes Street Gardens. His dream was to bring the people together and refill what was once the Nor Loch.

The valley that holds Princes Street Gardens was bequeathed to us by glacial action during the last ice age, and from the mid-15th to early 19th Century it held a man-made loch, which served as everything you could imagine, whether a source of the city’s drinking water, an extra defence against invaders, or somewhere to dump your waste or criminals.  

After months of discussions and debate about where and when to hold Hidden Door’s 10th Birthday Party, we realised that there was a perfect venue right in front of us.

How hard would it be to block up a few drains and let Edinburgh’s climate fulfil the dream of an angry young poet? Float a stage on it and we’ve got a party! Many of our past festivals have enjoyed spectacular views, and what better view than the bottom of the Castle Rock? 

Of course, we are always very careful about how we treat our venues, in the knowledge that we are only the temporary guardians of Edinburgh’s landscape. As such, we will only be flooding the gardens for the two days of the party, after which we will pull the plug and let things return to what we have come to view as normal. 

So if you want to experience Edinburgh’s city centre as it was meant to be experienced (according to King James III) you’ll have to rush out and buy tickets before they’re all gone!

Bring your waders.

Hidden Door’s 10th birthday party takes place 10 & 11 May – tickets on sale now. Whilst our venue may be subject to change, our line-up of music and visual art is definitely no joke.