LeithLate kicked off last night with a huge variety of fun, creative events all along Leith Walk.
Edinburgh Libraries were really eager to host Leith Late and we thought it would be fun to try another #artcore takeover after the success of the event on the Central Library Mezzanine for National Libraries Day in February.
#artcore is a youth arts partnership that lets young people take control, creating a platform for young artists to share or perform their work.
Initially the event was supposed to take place in the Nelson Hall at McDonald Road but the Referendum on EU membership meant we had to use some creative thinking about what spaces we could use, eventually settling on the Business Hub in the Basement!
The team of #artcore apprentices got to work yesterday afternoon transforming the space and bringing in sound and lighting equipment and making it a fun, inviting space for a great evening of music.
The event kicked off with spoken word and beats and rhymes from Totally Sound’s Urban Word project with some great rapping from LDC and other young artists.
We then had beautiful songs and keys from Marley Davidson before returning takeover guest ProkFiskal, NoiseOS and Senzik saw out the evening with some loud, pounding DJing and live electronics.
We had an amazing 170 people come to check it out over the course of the evening! All the performers were buzzing at performing in front of an audience and the #artcore team did an amazing job setting up, and producing such a professional and slick event.
We initially hoped that Creative Electric could present their new physical theatre piece “Fragile” but unfortunately the space was too small. Thanks to Out of the Blue the performance was able to go ahead in their new Leith Walk Studios – a great example of the strong, constructive partnership that’s come from working in partnership on #artcore.
We hope to do more takeovers in future and are already thinking about how we can do more for LeithLate next year!
Tales of One City 