May 6, 2024
From bright lights and cars to late nights and bars – we are busy transforming Basement 3 at St James Quarter for the Hidden Door 10th Birthday Party, Friday 10th and Saturday 11th May.
Here’s everything you need to know about your visit…
When you come down, enter via the Blue Picardy entrance. If you are coming into the building at Leith Street or Multrees Walk, head to Picardy, or access via Little King Street, next to our food partners Ozen. Our box office is by the Blue lifts at B3. Take the lifts or stairs to find us.
The B3 Car Park will be transformed into a two-night underground party, performance and arts space. It’s an exciting and unusual venue for us, a fantastically odd space to hold such an event.
We’ll be bringing our usual offer of light and sound design, and constructing one of our statement bars in collaboration with Edinburgh Tool Library.
Ticket-holders will have access from 6pm-1am to explore the artwork and grab a drink before hitting the dance floor with a music programme curated by Microsteria, EHFM and Paradise Palms Records.
We’re proud to have supported so many local artists over the last decade. This 10th birthday party celebrates our collective work and is part of our continuing commitment to showcasing Scottish talent.
We’ve curated a selection of 18 visual artists and collectives who have exhibited at Hidden Door festivals over the years, either bringing back past pieces or exhibiting an evolution of their work to show how their practice has developed. We invite you to revisit this stunning collection, perhaps rediscovering work you fell in love with or finding something entirely new.
We’re zoning off a large section of Basement 3 to create an environment for you to explore, leading into a speakeasy-style area with visual art nestled amongst the alcoves and pillars.
Follow the site-specific lighting and set design to explore the art and encounter the performances.
Then follow your ears to the dance floor, with 7 hours of music programme each night.
We’re creating a stage with projection art framing both sides, incorporating fantastic visuals into the performances, including from many of our exhibiting visual artists.
Plus, join us on a journey into Microsteria, an immersive performance from electronic band Maranta. Expect an otherworldly sensory experience integrating visual, aural and virtual elements, with live-feed cameras connecting to the projector screens as performers interact with the cameras, other performers, and the audience.
We are excited to welcome back The Wanderers, AKA Where We Used to Wander, an interactive, roaming style dance-theatre work that premiered at Hidden Door 2023.
The Wanderers will traverse the unexplored world of Microsteria. The two-night event will unfold as otherworldly sensory experience integrating visual, aural and virtual elements, with live-feed cameras connecting to projector screens surrounding the music performance area. The performers will navigate with the cameras to interact with one another, other performers, and the audience.
As always, we are offering the opportunity to explore our venue for free to ensure as many people as possible can experience everything we’ve brought together.
On Saturday 11 May between 1pm – 6pm you’ll be able to:
We’re already on-site building our pop-up bar, which will be decorated by Glasgow-based artists Lewi Quinn, working with the Edinburgh Tool Library to use reclaimed materials from events we’ve held over the years.
Our ethos is to reduce our carbon footprint and we rarely throw anything away – to dress the bar, we’re doing another throwback to our time at Leith Theatre, when we used old parts of the Usher Hall organ to build the iconic Organ Bar in the main auditorium there. Leith Theatre have kindly regifted parts of the organ so that we can incorporating aspects of that into the Basement 3 bar.
We’re again working with our drinks partner Bellfield Brewery who will be offering a delightful range of craft beers, as well as our spirits partner Jack Daniels providing something a little stronger. Sort drinks will of course be available too.
We’ve partnered with Ozen Street Food on Little Kings Street who are offering ticket holders a 10% discount off their delicious Bao Buns. We’ll even have QR codes down in the Basement 3 to allow you to pre-order your food before you head up to grab it – they’ll be open until 11pm both nights.
And of course, you’ll be able to re-enter the party should you need to pop out to refuel before heading back to the dance floor.
If you’re in need of caffeine, Artisan Roast are offering 20% discount off coffee to ticket holders.
We are delighted to be working with the team behind the seminal Edinburgh club night Under The Influence (UTI). Look out for a series of fluorescent hanging banners not seen in public since the night closed in the early 2000s.
Hidden Door opens up spaces both literally and figuratively for the arts, and we think it’s important to remember what has taken place in those spaces previously. There’s been creative activity happening in the area surrounding our party venue for years and we’re just part of that story.
These iconic banners are one beautiful way of joining those dots and remembering cultural organisations and creative activity that was happening long before Hidden Door.
The main access to Basement 3 is via the Picardy entrance to St James Quarter on Little King Street.
From there, take the lift or stairs down to B3.
The St James Quarter complex and the area we have transformed in Basement 3 are all fully wheelchair accessible.
Disabled toilets are available on each carpark level, although these are limited.
For anyone who doesn’t need disabled toilet facilities, we ask you to use the toilets in the main St James Quarter.
Signage and Hidden Door volunteers will be on hand to direct people to the closest facilities via the lifts.
Unfortunately we’re not able to provide cloakrooms this time. We’ll have security staff and volunteer stewards throughout the venue but please keep an eye on your possessions at all times.