Hidden in plain sight
A TEN DAY ARTS festival like no other will take place from 9 to 18 June at one of the most imposing buildings in Edinburgh which has lain empty and unused for more than half a century.
The former Royal High School will come to life with live music, visual art, dance, theatre and spoken word between 9 and 18 June 2022 when Hidden Door hold this year's pop up festival there. The central chamber will become a space for dance on an elevated stage. Outside there will be bars on the front terrace enjoying fabulous views over Holyrood, and an outdoor stage will be built in the car park.
The empty building was considered as the possible home for the new Scottish Parliament, but none of those plans came to fruition. The school moved to Davidson's Mains in the 1960s and the council has not found a good use for it since except as storage. The building is made up of interlinking rooms, staircases and corridors which will be filled with art for a last hurrah before it is developed as an education centre for the musicians of the future.
David Martin, Creative Director of Hidden Door, said: “It's not that hard to find as a building as it is pretty prominent in the city centre, perched on the side of Calton Hill. We had always clocked it - at Hidden Door there's a group of us who are always aware of buildings in the city which are conspicuously dark, so when we built up a relationship with the council we started talking about the Royal High School and the possibility. We were amazed at how open the council were to Hidden Door coming in and doing our thing in the building.
“What we are really trying to do is shine a light on what we call the best new emerging talent in visual art, music, dance, theatre, spoken word in Scotland.
“And one of the ideas is that if we bring that together then audiences get a chance people to pick and mix between different art forms that they might not necessarily go out of their way to see. So people can create their own experiences where they get to see visual art, go and see a music show, sit in on a spoken word performance that they might not normally go and look at. But above and beyond all of that we are also for this particular edition of Hidden Door we are commissioning collaborations . We are asking artists and musicians set designers and costume collectives to work together to create some specially commissioned performances for the building.
“There are over 100 doors and we are opening some doors and gates which have not been opened for more than 50 years. That involves a lot of rust, a bit of blacksmith work and some careful conservation work, but we are really excited to be able to open up the original school gates and the audience will be able to find their way in just like the pupils did back in the 1960s.”
Events like this involve an amount of fundraising and in the case of a pop up festival like Hidden Door that means it is back to the drawing board each time.
David said: “With Hidden Door we have always wanted to be as independent as possible. We generate all our own funding through ticket sales, bar sales, grants and funding. We make that money each year and the best way people can support Hidden Door is to come along, buy tickets and buy a pint and get their friends to do the same. That is supporting Hidden Door.”