Hidden Door festival opens out across the capital
● Event set to relocate from Leith Theatre under rethink for 2020
Edinburgh’s award- winning Hidden Door festival, which was credited with reopening a neglected theatre building after 30 years, is set to staged across the city in future.
Organisers have revealed plans to relocate the event away from Leith Theatre after three years and take over up to four empty and derelict alternatives in 2020.
Alt hough a n a l t e r nat i ve home for the event in Leith is being sought, organisers have revealed ambitions to take Hidden Door to Princes Street, as part of a drive to “increase the adventure potential”.
Creative director David Martin said he believed the audience wanted “somewhere new to explore” and locations with a “wow factor” from the festival, which stages live music, theatre, dance, spoken word and visual arts shows.
A complete rethink of the event – which has brought acts like Idlewild, Young Fathers and Anna Meredith to Leith Theatre – is being planned after the festival ran into financial trouble in 2018 and almost had to be cancelled this year.
This weekend’s f our- day event was scaled back from ten days after £ 50,000 worth of debts were run up in 2018, when i t s t aged a s t r i ng of events in the Leith Theatre and a nearby former art deco cinema.
A f o r mer g a s wo r k s , a n old department store, empty schools and former council depots have already been explored for their potential use next year for the event, with Dalry and the Southside among the locations in the running.
Mr Martin compared t he growth of Hidden Door since it was first staged in empty arches on Market Street in 2014 to “chasing a snowball down a hill” and said there was a need to move away from relying on ticket sales for gigs in the 1,300- capacity Leith Theatre.
He added: “We felt we had really hit our stride last year, but we went quite big- scale quite quickly. We’ve had to pull back a bit to steady the ship and catch our breath.
“As we’ve grown with Leith Theatre, we’ve become very much associated with it.
“Putting on Hidden Door in Leith Theatre is expensive. It’s not a normal venue by any standards. A lot of stuff has to be brought in. We’re the ones that have had to foot the bill. If we put on ten nights and people don’t come to one of them, we can lose up to £ 10,000.
“We’ve been trying to get the wheels in motion for 2020 well in advance. We’re quite aware that our audience want somewhere new to explore. Our vision to is increase the adventure potential of Hidden Door.
“We’re not looking for another big venue like Leith Theatre. We hope people will be able to go to different venues around the city. One of the things that makes Hidden Door work really well i s i f people can move from space to space. There has to be a wow factor.”