In response to the Coronavirus pandemic and postponement of Hidden Door 2020, we launched a series of live shows to connect artists and audiences, showcasing the best emerging talent and exploring the impact of lockdown on creativity and the arts.
Hidden Door Live is supported by Creative Scotland and National Lottery Open Fund to ensure all contributors are fairly paid.
Many of the projects and collaborations featured in our live shows will also feature as part of the programme for Hidden Door 2021, taking place in September at the iconic Granton Gasworks. Tickets on sale now!
Our next Hidden Door Live show goes live on Thursday 24 June 2021 at 8pm.
What does the site of a rave look like to future archaeologists? What would they understand from the snippets of decipherable footage and discarded artefacts? Taking the notion that archaeology eavesdrops on the past, would the iconic smiley face of acid house appear godlike? Witnessed out of context, rave could be compared to religion, its dance appearing tribal as with the frenzied dance often witnessed in rituals.
With the events of the last year we all need to feel a little more connected. In the late 80s Rave brought people together, it broke down prejudices and promoted a sense of collectiveness. Raves are collaborative and this project draws together elements of theatre, dance, music and visual art to celebrate the archaeology of rave.
The Rave Cave is curated by visual artist Jill Martin Boualaxai in collaboration with Midi Paul, Fiona Oliver-Larkin and Tony Mills.
Sign up to the Facebook event.
SALTYDOLLS presents !T’S TH!S (UTOP!A)
For our Hidden Door Live show on 27 May 2021, we brought you a pop anthem for imagined futures. A SALTYDOLLS manifesto. A love song to the feminist manifestos that came before us. A boot up the arse of the patriarchy and a rallying call.
Theatre company SALTYDOLLS provided a taster of what they’ll be doing at Hidden Door Festival in September. VIVA SALTYDOLLS!
For as long as humans have dreamed, we have looked at the world around us and wondered how to make it better – how to make it perfect. These attempts have manifested as some of humanity’s greatest triumphs and most tragic failures. Now, in what is destined to continue that noble tradition, Post Coal Prom Queen and Hidden Door welcome you to the UTOPIA PROJECT, streamed live on Thursday 29 April.
PCPQ filmed interviews with four of Scotland’s most interesting arts and culture personalities to ask them what utopia means to them and about their favourite visions of the future. These fascinating interviews were published over the next two weeks on the run up to a very special Post Coal Prom Queen live show – debuting songs from their upcoming EP – filmed at The Biscuit Factory in Edinburgh. On the night, PCPQ were joined by Mio Shudo – a traditional Japanese storyteller – who shared a beautiful story on a utopian theme. In their UK live premiere, we also brought you an exclusive live set filmed in Tokyo from the stunningly unique Japanese electronic innovators Macaroom.
These interviews, stories, and cross-cultural events epitomise the PCPQ vision of a utopia – a world of beautiful collaboration unburdened by borders.
Emerging Scottish artist Chell Young curates a unique live stream experience that will take you on a journey through a kaleidoscope of real and imagined spaces, resting somewhere between truth and fiction. Join us as we travel between fictional and physical realms with a live performance by Electronic due MARANTA, video work and virtual installations by artists Heather Lander, Noel Griffin and Chell Young and music by Michael Begg and Mikhail Pinyaev.
Prepare to explore in a way you have never done before. Join us for this FREE Live Show on Thursday 15th April, 8pm.
Four performance artists, a dancer and a composer each spent 2 days in isolation in the Soapworks, a 100-year old disused factory building in Leith, with the challenge of coming up with new work from scratch. With just the space, the isolation and whatever they can find around them as inspiration, what will they manage to create?
On Thursday 18 March, musician and composer Esther Swift curated The Call – a stunning outdoor performance that saw a group of musicians gather (socially distanced) to perform a piece composed by Esther, conducted using handmade flags.
This was an epic performance from a special location in Edinburgh.
Our virtual venue hunt continues as we search for spaces to bring audiences and artists together safely and creatively. For Part 2, we shared our top 21 dream locations for Hidden Door 2021 and how they might be safely transformed into the groundbreaking live event we long to put on.
Streamed live on Thursday 4 March, with music from singer-songwriters Siobhan Wilson and Jane Blanchard, plus dance artists Hannah Venet, Sky Su and Tamsyn Russell with an exclusive, site-specific performance from a secret location somewhere in Edinburgh.
We also revealed the winners of our competition to suggest great locations for our hunt.
Join our “virtual venue hunt” as we search for spaces to bring audiences and artists together safely and creatively. We share some dream locations for Hidden Door 2021 and explore how they might be transformed into the groundbreaking live event we long to put on, when it’s finally safe to do so. After a fortnight of sharing glimpses of potential venues across social media, we went live from Calton Hill on Thursday 18 February 2021. With music from Hamish Hawk and poetry from Catherine Wilson. Curated by Hidden Door’s Creative Director, David Martin.
From October 2020, the best of Scotland’s emerging creatives took over the second series of Hidden Door’s online shows.
The festival handed over the reins to artists, musicians and dancers to enable their ideas in creating unique and immersive online events.
Restriction, curated by Tamara Schlesinger (Malka), was the fourth episode of Hidden Door Live Season 2. Focusing on the impact Covid 19 has had on the music industry, Restriction examined the question of how we can ‘keep a light on’ for performers, venues and crew. With music and interviews from some of Scotland’s most vibrant musical acts, we streamed the event live from La Belle Angele on Tuesday 15 December 2020.
Curated by Tess Letham, Remedy for Memory explored fantasy, ritual, love, friendship, memory, healing and romance through a comical and tender narrative. Revealing intimate anecdotes and pushing the boundaries of our own reality.
The second Hidden Door Live project in the series, Spectral Pathways was curated by Edinburgh College of Art graduate and video artist Florence Richardson, who created an immersive and atmospheric online event.
Instead of interviews and living rooms, this event saw the Hidden Door Team using a giant video wall in a Granton warehouse, and map projections onto a huge old country house in East Lothian. The show on 10 November featured collaborations across electronic ambient music, fine art and film, exploring themes of lost futures, and a nostalgia for what might never be…
Musician and sound artist Dave House, aka The Reverse Engineer, curates Iterations, where he invited six different kinds of artists to explore how Covid-19 restrictions have affected their creative process, output and mental health. They each had two days to respond to the previous artist’s work, documenting the process on social media. The project culminated in a live show on Tuesday 27 October featuring the resulting work and interviews with the artists.
Hidden Door’s first pilot Live Show, hit the airwaves on 21 May 2020, with interviews and performances from musicians, visual artists and spoken word artists. Tupper Werewolf, Mt. Doubt, Iona Lee poetry, Jill Martin Boualaxai and Kristina Chan joined us live to talk about what it means to survive as a creator in these unprecedented times.
Our second Hidden Door Live Show featured live tunes, interviews and performances from Grisly Faye, Cat Bruce, Chell Young, Martin Elden, Lotte Fisher, Jenny Martin and Tortoise in a Nutshell theatre.
Edinburgh-based recording artist Harry Bongo, singer/songwriter Lists, visual artist Catherine Street and spoken word artist Jeda Pearl join us for our third live show, ‘Time and the Immaterial’, as we explore how time is passing in lockdown.
Our fourth live show featured live music from Esther Swift, Fourth Daughter, chats with Room 2 Manoeuvre artistic director Tony Mills and Tinderbox Theatre Company from Belfast!
Witness a live performance from new theatre company S A L T Y D O L L S theatre for Hidden Door Live Show ‘Pushing Boundaries’, plus great music by the band duo Super Inuit, and a chat with visual artist Oana Stanciu, interviewed by visual artist Jill Boualaxai!
Our sixth Hidden Door Live Show was dedicated to dance and all of its forms. Aerialist and dancer Chrissie Ardill, solo dance theatre performer Alice Wilkins, a chat with Skye Reynolds and live music from Katherine Aly.
A very special Hidden Door Live Show exploring ‘Live Music Post-Pandemic’ – we were joined by Brian Reynolds, founder of live music and festival promotion company 432 Presents and owner of the The Hug and Pint, and Jamie Sutherland from Summerhall & Broken Records, plus great performances by Half Formed Things & L-space / Post Coal Prom Queen.
