Edinburgh's Hidden Door festival to be staged in St James Quarter car park

Now Edinburgh’s Hidden Door festival is to celebrate its 10th birthday by taking over a vast basement car park.

Musicians, visual art, projections, performers and DJs will transform the vast space inside the £1 billion St James Quarter complex in the east end of the city centre, for what will be the first of two Hidden Door events in 2024.

The event will be held on 10 and 11 May, shortly before the third birthday of the development, which has transformed a 1.7 million sq ft near St Andrew Square since work began in 2018.

Hidden Door, which began life with small-scale events at the Roxy Art House, near the Festival Theatre in 2010, became a full-scale festival in 2014 when it took over a series of disused vaults on Market Street.

Subsequent events were Leith Theatre, a nearby empty cinema building, the former Royal High School on Calton Hill, a gap site and warehouse near Granton’s historic former gas tower and an empty Scottish Widows complex next to the Commonwealth Pool.

New restaurants, cafes, bars, shops, hotels and a cinema have opened at the St James Quarter since it was unveiled in June 2021. Previous partnerships have been struck up with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Hidden Door will be taking over the car park on the Basement 3 (B3) level of the centre for the two-day event, which is being held ahead of a planned five-day festival in a “secret location” later this year.

Music acts appearing at the May event include Auntie Flo, Lola, Kush, Maranta, Jacuzzi General, Pillow Lava, Naafi, Proc Fiskal, Moray Leisure Centre and Eclair Fifi.

visual artists expected to be showcased include Ursula Cheng, Tipphereth Print Studio, Zoe Gibson, Lewi Quinn, Martin Eldon, James Sinfield, Ian H Williams, Jill M Boualaxai, Brightside Studios, Oana Stancui, Sarah Calmus, Silas Parry, Elvey Steadman, Evie Rose Thompson, Miriam Mallalieu, Martin Crawford and Emma Hislop.

Festival director Hazel Johnson said: “Hidden Door’s 10th birthday event is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the past decade of festivals, collaborations, community and creative innovation - and what better way to do that than by opening up another of Edinburgh's fascinating spaces and filling it with art, music and performance.

“This is unlike any other space that’s played host to Hidden Door and we can’t wait to reveal its transformation.

"This vast basement car park has plenty of room to play with - we’ll be making the most of the wide open floor plan, whilst creating nooks and crannies amongst the pillars for people to explore the art installations and projections.”

Susan Hewlett, marketing director at the St James Quarter, said: “We’re really excited to work with Hidden Door to host their 10th anniversary party, injecting life, music and art into this unexpected space.

"We’ve always wanted to host live music on the B3 level of our car park. It’s a vast space with incredible acoustics and Hidden Door is the perfect partner.

"We can’t wait to welcome event-goers for what will be a really special showcase of music and arts in one of the most creative cities.”