August 30, 2021
Five collaborative projects initially created for a digital audience are to be performed to a live audience for the first time at this year’s Hidden Door festival.
The performances were all originally created for the Hidden Door Live streams that were put on during lockdown and have now been developed for a live audience.
Each is led by an artist curator, who was commissioned to create a unique experience bringing together performers from different art forms.
Initially conceived during lockdown and being staged as live performances start up again, they celebrate an emergence from creative isolation.
They will be performed at the multi-arts festival, which takes place 15 – 19 September in the shadow of the Granton Gasworks.
Lily Higham and Gordon Johnstone from Post Coal Prom Queen said: “Hidden Door was the first organisation we’d collaborated with that asked us what we wanted to do, actually supported our ridiculous ambitions, and did everything in their power to bring it all to life. They’re the most supportive people we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. We’re so excited to be involved in the festival this year and we can’t wait to celebrate at Granton Gasworks.”
The five projects are:
The festival will kick off on Wednesday with a reprise of The Call, an inspiring project from Edinburgh-based composer Esther Swift. She will bring together an eclectic mix of 20 Scottish musicians across the gasworks site to perform an original composition, conducted using specially designed flags.
On Friday, Imagines Realities will be taking to the stage in a 45-minute long experience designed to take the audience on a journey through labyrinthine spaces. Synth pop duo MARANTA will be performing with the backdrop of cinematic sets created by Chell Young, while characters from the Vomiton costume collective appear on stage.
Meanwhile, The Rave Cave will be taking over the warehouse on Friday night. This live multi art form performance draws together elements of theatre, dance, music and visual art to celebrate the archaeology of Rave.
Back on the stages, Post Coal Prom Queen’s A Party At The End of The World will see them collaborating with MCs, instrumentalists, filmmakers and visual artists to imagine the end of the world. As well as performing songs from their debut and recent albums, the band will be debuting music written especially for Hidden Door.
On the final night of the festival, Spectral Gateway is a 50-minute set of live audio-visual performance featuring film art from Florence Richardson alongside an ambient score from Daniel Garcia that will then be remixed and ramped up by electronic musician The Reverse Engineer.
Opening daily from Wednesday 15 – Sunday 19 September, the Granton Gasworks site will feature two stages for live music and other performances. The neighbouring warehouse will be home to an art exhibition, theatre and dance performances.
Hidden Door are working with Edinburgh College, who have provided access to the West Short Road site for this year’s festival. The event will also provide a platform for students to get involved, gaining inspiration and experience to boost their future careers.
Edinburgh brewer Innis & Gunn is sponsoring this year’s festival and will be pouring a selection of their premium beers at pop-up bars across the Granton site. Hidden Door’s media partners for 2021 are The Skinny.
In response to the lockdown, we supported a roster of emerging artists, musicians and dancers to enable their ideas for a series of unique and immersive online events. Each project saw a guest-curator take control of Hidden Door’s social media for a look behind the scenes as the work takes shape, culminating in a live show.
The project received funding from Creative Scotland and The National Lottery’s Open Fund: Sustaining Creative Development Programme, allowing every participant to be paid fairly for their contribution to the shows.