Saturday 14 June offers a full 12 HOURS of entertainment for those with the stamina to arrive early and stay late.

Here’s how your Saturday visit might look – although your exact path through the factory is entirely up to you..

A packed weekend programme starting at 1pm

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.

Be sure to head down from 1pm because we kick off with the Tinderbox Young Bands Showcase in the Club Space, featuring some of Scotland’s most exciting young bands and performers throughout the afternoon.

Right next door, 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.

At 2:30pm, get yourself to the Long Room where MNDMTH AKA Stuart Brown brings his acclaimed live multimedia drum performance, an immersive audiovisual percussion piece for Hidden Door reflecting the rituals and rhythms of machines and workers that once occupied the former Paper Factory.

Then at 3pm, prepare for something utterly unique – Halycon Days will start at the main entrance and from there you’ll wander to a secret destination for live music and an opportunity to dance. Then return to the Paper Factory for a gathering, some reflection and cake.

4pm – we’re just getting started

We’re delighted to showcase more local talent through our Music Open Call, and this afternoon you can catch Night Caller on the Jack Daniels Stage at 4:15pm, a five-piece gutter pop outfit who always raise the ruckus. Expect fast, fervent, hooky punk that gets blood pumping, tongues wagging, and nerves jangling.

Then at 4:45pm in the Machine Room, The Era are a Glasgow duo  consisting of Electric Harp player Lochlann and Singer/Guitarist Cal. Taking as much influence from pop icons such as Sky Ferreira and Charli XCX as they do from indie references like Arctic Monkeys, The Kills & Nine Inch Nails.

At 5.15pm in the Crane Shed, Cosmic Dance present Duality, a contemporary Bharatanatyam duet that challenges traditional expectations of the dance form.

At the same time, Puppy Team take to the Jack Daniels Stage, an Edinburgh band composed of singer and rhythm guitarist Anna Trost, singer and lead guitarist Theo Black, bassist Ed Meltzer and drummer Niamh Jordan. The band has been described as dreamy, 90s shoegaze-grunge with hypnotizing female vocals.

6pm – got your ticket?

Anyone hanging around after 6pm will need a ticket, so see our lovely box office crew if you haven’t got yours yet. Then settle in for 7 more hours of immersive entertainment…

At 6.15pm in the Crane Shed, home to this year’s Dance Stage, sonic artist and harpist Deborah Shaw/Aurora Engine teams up with choreographer Katie Armstrong to present Sounds of the Unseen, a new live work exploring invisible yet omnipresent labor carried out by women.  Through a tapestry of collected sounds including recordings from domestic environments, melded with live harp, electronics and vocals, the performance reflects the rhythmic nature of domestic work.

At 6:30pm you have a choice – either catch Day Sleeper at the Jack Daniels Stage, hewing pop gems from slabs of sonic abrasion. The Edinburgh band’s debut EP Everything There Is, issued by Assai Records in 2024, effortlessly walked a blurred line between the lush pathos of The Blue Nile or Future Islands, and the warped adventurism of Animal Collective or Yo La Tengo.

Or pop by the Long Room for Theresa Muñoz, an Edinburgh-based poet and creative producer who mostly writes about underrepresented voices, mostly that of new migrants to Scotland, those in inter-racial relationships and women of colour. Inspired by archives in the National Library of Scotland, there are poems on Muriel Spark, actress Maggie Smith, author Charles Dickens and on 17th century recipes, diaries and maps.

At 7pm witness ‘Ghost in the Machine’ on the Factory Floor, 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.

Alternatively, in the Machine Room we have Theo Bleak, a singer-songwriter from Dundee. Theo melds the ethereal vocals and soaring sounds of shoegaze with folk instrumentation and songwriting to create her own brand of alternative-folk with philosophical lyricism.

Just by the Locker Room at 7.40pm, check out Eszter Marsalko‘s “We have all been here – now into the light” – a multi-disciplinary installation and performance, combining video and audio work with short live encounters. Weaving a web through moments in time and taking the shape of a conceptual/magical biography of a place, the work explores moments from the site’s past, present and imagined future.

Back at the Jack Daniels Stage for 7.45pm, emerging Glasgow trio Brenda are Litty Hughes on guitar, Apsi Witana on drums and Flore de Hoog on synths – with all three contributing to lyrics and vocals. They’ve created a name for themselves by gigging across Glasgow – their energetic sets described as the type that “end up seared onto your brain after a single viewing” with their “impudent, inventive and extremely DIY punk-pop” (The Scotsman).

Meanwhile, the Crane Shed hosts Spindrift – performers Jessie Roberts Smith & Samm Anga work together in the moment to conjure up the meditative and disorientating vastness they experienced while in the North Atlantic. This piece is an ode to the ocean through body and sound. Expect articulate and amorphous dance that imagines the body as water itself, and a weaving of songs from the sea to the rhythm of waves and a touch of techno.

8pm – food etc?

You’re probably hungry by now, so pop outside to sample the delights from our hot street food traders.

Be sure to swing by the Long Room at 8pm where Esther Swift is doing an additional performance following her opening night set.

Then at 8:30pm in the Machine Room, The Orielles have journeyed from lo-fi DIY indie origins to inspired avant-pop. With their latest album Tableau, they have created an experimental double album that utilises holistic jazz practices, oblique 21st century electronica, and experimental 1960s tape loop methods. 

Also at this time, a second chance to catch ‘Ghost in the Machine’ on the Factory Floor.

At 9.15pm on the Jack Daniels Stage, Edinburgh duo No Windows continue their steep upward trajectory. Their music combines warm and fuzzy Duster-style soundscapes with the lo-fi experimentalism of songwriters like Alex G, Big Thief & Fiona Apple. Multi-instrumentalist Morgan Morris and lyricist Verity Slangen’s evocative blend of classic pop & folk has earned them widespread support from radio and press, as well as the coveted Sound of Young Scotland Award at the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Awards in 2023.

Also at this time, you might head to the Crane Shed to visit the Dance Space, powered by FunktionCreep. Here you’ll witness ‘SPECTRAL’ – a powerful and visually stunning immersive experience. Lit up by a fusion of light and lasers, the performance begins on the warehouse floor before performers spin 30 feet into the air, capturing the essence of labour and its transformation into something transcendent. A live soundtrack embraces the cavernous reverb of the performance space, layering field recordings with intricate synths and polyrhythms.

10pm – plenty more fun to be had

Once again you have some options. In the Machine Room you can catch the brilliant Katy J Pearson. Crafting songs which range from achy-hearted, string-laden confessionals to sleek, chic soundtracks for the small hours, Katy J Pearson is a pop singer-songwriter for the modern catastrophic age.

Or on the Factory Floor, our final creative collaboration of the night, Production Line of Dreams is a poetic and psychedelic ensemble blending soundscapes, spoken word, and rhythmic loops to reflect factory production cycles. Featuring bassist Ruairidh Morrison, synth and vocals by Gloria, percussion by Daniel Hill, and poet Iona Lee, the performance mirrors the repetitive rhythms of labour, incorporating field recordings from the site and hypnotic musical structures to create an immersive, trance-like experience.

11pm – party til you drop with Samedia

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 Samedia Shebeen DJ Takeover will be in full swing. We’ve got Samedia DJs, plantainchipps and the brilliant Toya Delazy.

So come down to The Paper Factory for Super Saturday – tickets going fast!