Edinburgh’s Hidden Door Festival is taking over a vast industrial site for its 2025 festival. Celebrating the new venue with a special launch event this weekend, Hidden Door will host a two-night programme of live music, visual art and performances.
The Paper Factory is a huge 15.5-acre site occupied by a former paper and cardboard manufacturing facility on the western edge of Edinburgh. The site features a mix of warehouses, factory floors, offices and outhouses. Situated next to Edinburgh Gateway tram and rail station, and with several main bus lines nearby, there are excellent transport links to the city centre as well as to Glasgow and the west.
Friday 22 November sees experimental electronica from Exterior, the heartfelt alt-pop of Paige Kennedy, post-punk edginess from Trout and the ever-evolving avant-electropop of Jane Weaver.
Saturday 23 November welcomes Black feminist punk band Big Joanie co-headlining with alt rock trio HotWax, with support from doom-punk quartet Witch Fever and dream pop duo Sarah/Shaun.
Alongside the live music, audiences can explore some of the huge factory spaces featuring the work of over 20 artists. A diverse range of media and artforms will be presented, including sculpture, performance, installation, painting, printmaking and large-scale works.
Between the live music, look out for pop-up dance and laser shows and an utterly unique light and drumming performance.
The Paper Factory will provide a base for Hidden Door throughout 2025 to work with artists on site-specific performance and art, commissioning new work and providing much needed workshop and studio spaces to the creative community.
Hidden Door is supported by Creative Scotland. Our launch party is sponsored by Bellfield Brewery, Jack Daniel’s and DirectControlUK.
The trailer below provides a taste of what to expect on 22 and 23 November:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7lgNvmnIW4
Live Music
Visitors to The Paper Factory are set to enjoy an utterly unique gig experience; a vast industrial space once echoing with the sound of heavy machinery, now reborn with live music, lights and projections.
Singer songwriter Jane Weaver returns to Hidden Door having performed at King Stables Road in 2016. Abusing, evading, and obliterating 20 years of whimsical pop trends, her reputation as a truly independent and resilient experimenter commands respect and inspiration in equal measures.
Big Joanie combines the fury of nineties riot grrrl with synth-heavy post punk. Their second album Back Home was released in November 2022 and ranked in Rolling Stone’s top albums of the year list, receiving critical acclaim in the Guardian, Wire Magazine and The Quietus.
Rock trio HotWax return to Edinburgh having graced the stage at Psych Fest in September. It’s been a meteoric rise for the young powerhouse, with their raw brand of post-punk, grunge and alternative rock both unique and familiar. Their debut album Hot Shock lands in 2025, with first single “She’s Got A Problem” recently released – a driving grunge-rock anthem that has become a live favourite during their packed summer tour.
Witch Fever are rising stars in the alternative rock scene, known for their ferocious energy and distinctive sound. Their infectious melodies have earned them a dedicated following and critical acclaim. Expect powerful riffs, haunting melodies, and thought-provoking lyrics tackling themes of empowerment, identity, and social justice.
Paige Kennedy brings their unique brand of banging alt-pop and heartfelt storytelling to Hidden Door. Listeners will be captivated by their danceable basslines, quirky lyrics and hook-laden songwriting challenging notions of acceptance, self-possession and gender expectations.
Edinburgh-based dream pop duo Sarah/Shaun released their debut EP It’s True What They Say via Hobbes Music in April. They narrate stories exploring themes of love, hope, family, friends, dreams and sadness – the good that comes with the bad in everyday life.
Liverpool based Trout brings her indie rock to Hidden Door. Signed to Chess Club Records last year, Trout released her 6-track debut EP Colourpicker. Indeed her first single was ‘Bugs’ released while studying music at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. It was an ode to the productivity of the tiniest creatures on earth. Trout has continued to evolve her sound,meshing together a slew of genres in her own music.
Promising “synthesised music with a human touch”, Exterior (AKA Doug MacDonald) returns to Hidden Door to present a live performance of HOLOCENE, a stunning body of work emerging from three years of studio and live experimentation. Expect seamless reimagining of electronica which collapses the purported distinctions between dance and rock.
Visual Art
Hidden Door has invited over 20 artists to present work, with audiences set to discover an intriguing mix of sculpture, dance, performance, installation, painting, printmaking and large-scale works.
Inspired by Hidden Door’s 10th anniversary theme of Past, Present, Future, curator Jill Boualaxai has invited both new and returning artists, selecting works specifically for The Paper Factory. “We’re exploring time, history, and archaeology,” says Jill, “and the idea of nature creeping back into that industrial space.”
The cavernous venue provides an exciting opportunity for artists to literally work on an industrial scale. Jo Fleming Smith will evolve her work Flood from 2023 into a large-scale installation; Beth Shapeero and Fraser Taylor’s collaborative textile banners, first shown during Hidden Door 2021 in Granton, will also be making a comeback. James Epps’ sculptural installations, including cardboard and paper, create a material connection to the industrial history of the site.
Jill has also followed the thread of “imagined or alternate realities” that emerged through the programme’s contrast of history and reclamation. The works of artists such as Aimee Finlay and Christian Sloan recontextualise spiritual practices through ritualistic sculptures and futuristic visions.
Marly Merle’s wearable sculptures transport viewers into fantastical worlds, reimagining societal norms. Justine Watt transforms discarded domestic objects into intimate sculptures, examining the intersection of craftsmanship and sustainability.
Bringing together emerging and established artists, the Paper Factory will allow the artists to use the space to amplify their visions, offering viewers an immersive experience that blurs boundaries and invites them into histories both real and imagined.
The artists invited to present site-specific work include Aimee Finlay, Jo Fleming Smith, Beth Shapeero & Fraser Taylor, Sian Landau, James Epps, Marly Merle, Justine Watt, Rachel Bride Ashton, Christian Sloan, Martin Elden & Morwenna Kearsley plus Projector Club and Ross Blair / Trenchone.
The event will also play host to an art shop where visitors will have an opportunity to take home unique pieces.
Food News
We’ve lined up some tasty street food and drinks for your visit. We know it might be chilly (well it is November after all!) so we’re delighted to welcome back Fat Flamingo and Chicken Skoop serving up some delicious hot food, plus lovely hot coffee from Brew 52. There will of course be a full bar onsite too.
The Venue
The Paper Factory is located in the Maybury Quarter, a 15.5-acre site occupied by a former paper and cardboard manufacturing facility on the western edge of Edinburgh.
There will be a full scale Hidden Door festival at the venue in the spring of 2025 but to celebrate this news an event in November will give festival goers the opportunity to view this extraordinary site. The event will take place on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 November with free access to explore the venue during the day on the Saturday.
Bounded by the Edinburgh Gateway tram and rail station, and with several bus routes within a 5 minute walk, there are excellent transport links to both the city centre and the airport in only 10 minutes.
The Airlink 100 bus passes close to the venue and runs every 20 minutes throughout the night.
For full venue and travel details, see hiddendoorarts.org/venue
Tickets are now available at hiddendoorarts.org/tickets.
Social Media
X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/hiddendoorarts
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hiddendoor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hiddendoorarts
About Hidden Door
Hidden Door was originally founded in 2009 by a group of creatives seeking to make something interesting happen in the city. Their mission was to create events where audiences could experience art away from the traditional “white cube” gallery format.
The collective curated two events at the former Roxy Art House in 2010, bringing together visual art, performance, film and music. The closure of the Roxy left the group with no venue and over the subsequent years they explored options for running a multi-arts event in derelict spaces.
The idea grew as the volunteer team expanded, and in 2014 the first full Hidden Door Festival happened, when the team cleared out the disused Market Street vaults to run a 9-day celebration of the arts focused on showcasing local creative talent.
In 2015 the festival moved to a hidden courtyard behind Kings’ Stables Road, and returned in 2016, attracting over 12,000 visitors to experience a wealth of art, poetry, theatre, cinema, dance and music. In 2017 the festival breathed new life into the old Leith Theatre, attracting rave reviews and critical praise for resurrecting “Scotland’s best new live music venue”, winning VisitScotland’s Thistle Award for “Best Cultural Event”.
In 2018, the festival returned to Leith Theatre, also taking up residence in the derelict former State Cinema, just around the corner. A farewell weekend event took place at Leith Theatre in 2019. During the pandemic, Hidden Door put on a series of online events, and returned with a bang to live events for a five-day outdoor event at Granton Gasworks in 2021.
In 2022, Hidden Door took over the Old Royal High School on Calton Hill for a ten day festival that brought life back to the school for the first time in years.
In 2023, we transformed the former Scottish Widows office complex on Dalkeith Road for a five-day spectacular event. Our unique “Environments” invited audiences to explore our venue in an immersive and atmospheric experience that attracted 5-star reviews and won Creative Edinburgh’s City Award.
Earlier this year, we opened up the Basement 3 car park of the St James Quarter for an immersive two-night birthday party celebrating 10 years of Hidden Door Festivals.
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