Leith Festival

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Leith Festival
Genre Theatre, comedy, dance, music, art, poetry, film, sport
Dates2018 9-17 June (exact dates vary each year)
Location(s) Leith, Edinburgh
Years active 1907–present
Website www.leithfestival.com
Lamp post showing Leith coat of arms Leith Harbour lamppost detail, The Shore - geograph.org.uk - 1537168.jpg
Lamp post showing Leith coat of arms

The Leith Festival is an arts festival held in the Leith area of Edinburgh and takes place mainly in the EH6 and EH7 postcodes of Edinburgh which cover the old burgh of Leith. [1] It is a community based festival that takes place annually. It is run by the Leith Festival Association. [2] It had been previously run by Leith Festival Club. The Edinburgh Short Film Festival, LeithLate and Leith Jazz and Blues Festival also run along the same time as the Leith Festival.

Arts festival festival that features the arts in a wide sense of the word, not just visual arts

An arts festival is a festival that can encompass a wide range of art genres including music, dance, film, fine art, literature, poetry etc. and isn't solely focused on "visual arts." Arts festivals may feature a mixed program that include music, literature, comedy, children's entertainment, science, or street theatre, and are typically presented in venues over a period of time ranging from as short as a day or a weekend to a month. Each event within the program is usually separately ticketed.

Leith district and former municipal burgh in Scotland

Leith is an area to the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, at the mouth of the Water of Leith.

Edinburgh Capital city in Scotland

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian, it is located in Lothian on the Firth of Forth's southern shore.

Contents

Background

The current version of the Leith Festival started in the late 1980s. [2] It takes place in June each year and includes Leith Festival Gala Day which started in 1907 as the Leith Gala. The Scotsman has reported that a precursor to the current day festival was established 100 years before the 2007 event. Leith Gala and Leith Pageant were started in order to raise money to pay for treatment at Leith Hospital before the days on the National Health Service. It continues with the role of fund raising with the parade and Gala day events, fun fair and stalls on Leith Links. There have been a number of festivals of various kinds held in Leith from The Edinburgh International Festival to the 1951 Festival of Britain and other local festivals. In the late 1960s an Art festival was set up as a community Festival. Over time the Gala expanded to become a community arts event being run continuously in its present form since the late eighties. Since 2008 like many other festivals, such as the Belfast Festival at Queen's, it has suffered from the prevailing economic climate losing sponsorship and funding. Since 2011 funding has been secured from the city council. [2]

The Scotsman is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its parent company, JPIMedia, also publishes the Edinburgh Evening News. As of February 2017, it had an audited print circulation of 19,449, with a paid-for circulation of 88.3% of this figure, about 17,000. Its website, Scotsman.com, had an average of 138,000 unique visitors a day as of 2017. The title celebrated its bicentenary on 25 January 2017.

Leith Hospital Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland

Leith Hospital was situated on Mill Lane in Leith, Edinburgh, and was a general hospital with adult medical and surgical wards, paediatric medical and surgical wards, a casualty department and a wide range of out-patient services. It closed in 1987.

Leith Links

Leith Links is the principal open space within Leith, the docks district of Edinburgh, Scotland. This public park extends to 18.5 hectares. In its current form it is divided by a road into two main areas, a western section and an eastern section, both being largely flat expanses of grass bordered by mature trees. Historically it covered a wider area extending north as far as the shoreline of the Firth of Forth. This area of grass and former sand-dunes was previously used as a golf links.

Timeline

1907 First Leith Gala takes place annually.

1932 Leith Theatre (also known as Leith Town Hall and The Citadel Theatre) opened – many bands play this venue including Thin Lizzy 4 October 1975

Leith Theatre is a theatre located on Ferry Road in Edinburgh, Scotland. It opened in 1932 and ceased operation in 1988. Following the efforts of Leith Theatre Trust, fundraising and campaigning is currently underway to support Leith Theatre's redevelopment and eventual full reopening as an arts and community venue.

1934 Royles Radio Rascals perform at the "Leith Hospital Pageant".

1936, 15 June The Scotsman reported "During the past fortnight entertainment of various kinds have been held on behalf of Leith Hospital and on Saturday these concluded with a number of outside concerts in the principal thoroughfares of Edinburgh and Leith." The Scotsman has reported the Festival under its various names since the beginning.

1947 Edinburgh Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which holds many events in Leith, starts

1952 – 1986 Leith Gazette is published – it carries many articles dealing with the festival and publishes an annual two-page photo spread entitled "Sunshine on Leith Festival"

1956 Leith Dockers Club opens

1961 – 1968 Leith Theatre used as venue by the Edinburgh International Festival

Edinburgh International Festival an annual festival of performing arts

The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual festival of performing arts in Edinburgh, Scotland, over three weeks in August. By invitation from the Festival Director, the International Festival brings top class performers of music, theatre, opera and dance from around the world to perform. The festival also hosts a series of visual art exhibitions, talks and workshops.

1972 Scottish International journal Vol 5, p34, reported that "Leith Festival was first dreamt of, it was as a community festival involving the people of Leith in providing their own entertainment and in helping themselves. It was a development of the squatters campaign in the slums at the foot of (Leith Walk)..."

1973 Festival program entitled "Programme of events for Britain's only free community festival."

1988 Leith Theatre closed, since 2004 Leith Theatre Trust has been set up to bring the theatre back into use

2004 Leith FM, later known as 98.8 Castle FM, starts as a two-week festival broadcast

2005 Irvine Welsh opens festival with first reading of new material at Leith Dockers Club

2010 Tom Allan wrote in The Guardian of 30 May 2010 that "This year's ten-day Leith Festival got off to a flying start over the weekend with Leith Gala Day. There was a Samba band and dancers, a giant sound system for Edinburgh reggae legends Messenger, and hundreds of stalls sporting everything."

2011 The festival was launched with a Wool Bomb attack. The BBC reported that "Trees have been wrapped in woolly jumpers as part of a guerrilla arts project to mark the start of the Leith Festival." [3]

Past performers & appearances

Bibliography

Programs are held by Edinburgh City Libraries 1990-96; 1998-99; 2002-09 and the National Library of Scotland 1971; 1973; 1990; 1994

See also

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References