February 5, 2025
We are now open for applications from poets and spoken word artists who would like to be part of this year’s Hidden Door programme, running 11-15 June 2025 at The Paper Factory in Edinburgh.
Deadline: Sunday, 23 February 2025, 11:59pm
Hidden Door is looking for a wide range of Scotland’s emerging and established poets and spoken word artists for its 2025 festival event. We invite applications from anyone based in Scotland – from those new to the craft to those with extensive experience. Our aim is to create opportunities for our performers regardless of their publication or performance histories, putting together the best possible programme.
We will be booking around 10-12 performers, for 20-30 minute sets each.
This year, we’re forgoing a traditional stage and situating our spoken word programme beneath a pop-up spotlight. You will be reading to both a seated and moving audience, as attendees continue to explore The Paper Factory’s massive indoor venue, mixing between artists, art forms, and intangible walls.
Note: while Hidden Door is not looking for groups or ensembles for our open call, if you feel strongly about an idea for a larger show, we are open to hearing it. However, these acts will be considered on a very selective basis. We want to be able to pay you for your work, and we will only support the projects we can properly back.
The Paper Factory is a former paper and cardboard box manufacturing facility, with a mix of warehouses, factory floors, offices and outhouses spread across a massive 15-acre site.
With this venue in mind, we encourage applicants to think of their pitches or sets in a way that feels fluid and fun. Hidden Door aims to bring new audiences into contact with art forms they may not be familiar with. We will be building our programme around that we feel works well within a permeable space, where audiences can explore and move between performances, moods, and ideas.
We want to create high-impact, accessible, and memorable events that will engage our audiences and be great fun for our performers, as well.
Hidden Door Festival’s 2025 Theme is The Building as a Myth. In poetry, this relates to ideas of both physical and narrative construction. What does it mean for spoken word artists to occupy an abandoned room and tell new stories? What stories do we choose to tell and why? And how do our individual performances collect into one greater whole?
We would like you to consider this year’s overarching theme within the four following sub-themes:
Focus: The interplay between industrial decay and natural renewal.
Focus: The building as a living archive where time converges.
Focus: Reimagining industrial processes as symbolic or sacred acts.
Focus: Reclaiming traditionally masculine spaces through feminist perspectives.
When you apply, please identify one or two of these sub-themes you feel that you work and/or set relates to.
Hidden Door will provide a flat fee of £200 for each performer.
Hidden Door is committed to fair pay for artists and performers. We reference our rates of pay against the Scottish Book Trust Rates, which suggests an artist fee of £200 for an hour-long solo performance. Our fee is for a 20-30 min performance but is all-inclusive of travel, etc.
As a contributor to Hidden Door, you will also receive a pass to all 5 days of the festival. You will also be invited to our social events in the lead up to/during the festival.
Apply by completing this short application form.
When you fill in our form, you will be asked if you would like to include any supporting material. You should attach:
When completing your application, don’t worry too much about the use of grammar, spelling, or formatting – these will not influence the outcome; we are interested in you and your work!
All the main questions can also be answered via video if you prefer. If sending video responses, please provide either links for downloadable files (i.e. via WeTransfer) or Google Drive file links.
For videos of your performance work, please send Vimeo, YouTube, or Google Drive file links rather than files to download.
We’re inviting applications from
Our goal is to spotlight the best talent in Scotland, and we are keen to support artists who would benefit from the experience, the exposure, and the opportunities which may have been difficult to obtain because of social and cultural barriers.
We encourage applications from marginalised groups to expand on conversations about our understanding of story-telling, archival history, reclamation and labour.
We are equally committed to providing a safe space in an accessible and welcoming platform. If you have any accessibility requirements or concerns, please mention them in whatever format is easiest for you within your application.
Applicants will be selected for the programme based on the review of their supplied supporting material, in particular the quality and individuality of their work.
The selection will also take account of the applicant’s proposal and its relevance to the chosen theme.
The benefit of participation to the applicant will also be considered.
A panel comprising of members of the Hidden Door team and guest-selectors will conduct this selection. Successful applicants will be notified by email in early March. Due to the volume of applications received, we are not able to give feedback on individual applications.
Hidden Door will provide the venue – with lighting, sound, and seating. We will not be providing other equipment, such as projectors.
If you have an idea for your performance that needs other props or equipment, you are welcome to suggest it in your application and we can discuss additional costs. However, our general advice would be to keep it simple!
For any additional questions, get in touch with us via programme@hiddendoorarts.org
The form will ask for the following information:
Please also attach: