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| The programme for this year’s Hidden Door is now live, as we reveal the first details of an ambitious series of original, immersive performances specially designed for our unique venue, plus live music from Porridge Radio, Hot 8 Brass Band, Max Cooper, NiNE8 and Pillow Queens. We’re transforming the former Scottish Widows office complex on Dalkeith Road for a five-day spectacular more immersive and atmospheric than any Hidden Door so far. The Complex will host a diverse live music and spoken word programme alongside a collection of visual art from Scotland’s best emerging artists. Hidden Door 2023 runs from Wednesday 31 May to Sunday 4 June. |
| ENVIRONMENTS |
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| Responding to the vast interior spaces, Hidden Door presents a series of Environments for the audience to explore as they venture deeper into the former office building. Featuring live music, dance, film projections, set design and even opera, each Environment brings together some of the most visionary emerging artists to talk about our natural world in a unique and imaginative way.The Environments will create an immersive journey – responding to the world around us and the impact we’ve had on it – and inviting the audiences to explore The Complex, with several surprises along the way. |
| MUSIC |
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| An eclectic mix of bands will be filling three performance spaces this year, offering almost every genre of music you can imagine.Indie rock band Porridge Radio, Grammy-winning Hot 8 Brass Band, electronica and techno producer Max Cooper, radical pop collective NiNE8, and Irish rock band Pillow Queens will take to the Cabaret Stage.Also performing in the former canteen will be post-punk outfit Pozi, doom jazz trio AKU!, jazz collective Corto.alto, alt-pop singer Berta Kennedy, Edinburgh band Dinosaur 94, and post-punk electronica Sweaty Palms.The Cabaret Stage will culminate each night with a party featuring the likes of brass band Blue Giant Orkestar, sax and drums duo O., and utopian synth duo Free Love.Down in the Loading Bay stage, indie band DEADLETTER, rap artist Bemz and alt musician Rozi Plain will entertain audiences. Over the five days, they’ll be joined by indie band Wombo, American rock band Flasher, hip hop artist Billy Got Waves, rapper and singer Jelani Blackman and outsider pop outfit The Microband.In the Club Space, music label Paradise Palms, Afro-Latin club night Samedia Shebeen and women and non-binary DJ collectives Sisu and EPiKA will each host residencies showcasing their roster of talent and keeping the tunes coming until closing time. |
| VISUAL ART |
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| On display inside The Complex will be visual art from a wide range of artists practising in Scotland, much of which will explore the same issues as the Environments.A series of interactive installation pieces from Becky Hunter, Chell Young, Elvey Stedman, Evie Rose Thornton, Kirsten Millar, Scott Hunter, and Soorin Shin will explore ideas of climate change and industry.Also on display will be photography from Emily Nicholl, abstract art from Iain H Williams, industrial art from James Sinfield, an installation from Jo Fleming Smith, object art from Joan Smith, textile art from Laura Lees, etchings from Madeline Mackay, found billboards from Martin Elden, ice-inspired hangings from Mary Walters, ink drawings from Natasha Russell, sculpture from Ross Andrew Spencer, paintings from Ryan Cairns, and sculpture from Tim Taylor.Work from recent art school graduates Aimee Finlay, Alice Sherlock, Amy Kim Grogan, Ben Caro and Kat Culter-MacKenzie, Ciaran Cannon, Coire Simpson, Dhira Chakraborty, Irene Aldazabal, Leah Wood, Sarah Phelan and Shae Myles will also be on display. |
| POETRY & SPOKEN WORD |
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| This year’s poetry and spoken word programme will showcase a diverse group of new and developing performers from across Scotland and beyond.On the first day of the festival, writer, poet and researcher Caitlin Stobie will share her writing, and Clare O’Brien will present her work inspired by the natural world and the creatures that wander through it. Queer writer and spoken word poet Gray Crosbie makes their return to Hidden Door, as does Sean Wai Keung presenting his reflections on identity and migration.Thursday 1 June sees poet and performance maker Bibi June present post-apocalyptic stories on climate change, while actor and poet Rupert Smith takes inspiration from Shakespeare into his work. Jay Whittaker will perform her irreverent, unsentimental poems looking at mortality, illness and loss.On Friday 2 June, Irish poet Éadaoín Lynch will perform from their debut poetry pamphlet, and Genevieve Carver will present her work in response to dolphins, porpoises and seals. British-Sudanese lyricist and performance poet Zaki El-Salahi will take to the stage to perform their work rooted in rap, dub poetry and the role of MC culture in grassroots black British consciousness. Sal will perform her work entangling trans and chronically ill experiences with organic processes of decay and birth.Saturday sees queer Latinx writer Andrés N Ordorica share his writing on the diasporic experience, and Ross McCleary performs his piece advocating for refilling of the Nor Loch. Edinburgh-based US poet Allie Kerper will also perform.The last day of Hidden Door will have performances from Scottish-Canadian poet Patrick James Errington, and Glasgow’s Oliver Robertson. Janette Ayachi will share her musings on searching landscapes and human connection, and Elspeth Wilson will celebrate joy from a marginalised perspective. |