Hidden Door Festival

Hidden Door is back in Edinburgh this June for another five-day takeover of The Paper Factory. Here’s what’s confirmed so far, how tickets work, how to get there, and why this year matters a bit more than usual.

Hidden Door returns from Wednesday 3 June to Sunday 7 June 2026, with the festival once again taking over The Paper Factory at 1 Turnhouse Road, Edinburgh, EH12 8NP.

It’s the same west Edinburgh site used in 2025, but this year comes with an extra hook: the organisers say this will be the final Hidden Door edition at the factory before the festival moves on.

That alone makes it one of the more interesting dates in Edinburgh’s early summer calendar. Hidden Door has built its name on opening unusual spaces and turning them into places people can actually explore, rather than just turning up for one set and heading home.

The Paper Factory fits that idea well. Hidden Door describes it as a huge former paper-and-cardboard site, with warehouses, factory floors, offices, and outhouses spread across roughly 15 acres.

The full 2026 programme is still due in April, so this is one of those festival posts that will need a refresh once more of the line-up lands. Even so, there’s already enough confirmed to make it worth booking or at least keeping an eye on. Hidden Door has announced Jenny Hval for Friday 5 June, and Valtos Presents: High Water Mark for Saturday 6 June, with late-night club programming also confirmed for both nights.

One of the handier things about Hidden Door is that it isn’t all locked behind a full festival ticket. The organisers say the site will be free to explore during the day, with tickets only needed if you’re staying on for the evening programme after 6pm. They’ve also confirmed concession discounts for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent visitors, people who are unemployed, students, under-26s and over-65s, plus a limited number of pay-what-you-can tickets for each evening.

For anyone in West Edinburgh, there’s also a Community Drop-In Day at The Paper Factory on Sunday, 19 April 2026, running from 2pm to 4 pm. Hidden Door says it will include site tours, volunteer information, and a chance to hear more about this year’s plans. It’s aimed at local residents, workers and businesses, but it’s also a useful sign that the 2026 build-up is now properly underway.

Hidden Door 2026 Quick Info:

• Dates: Wednesday 3 June to Sunday 7 June 2026.
• Venue: The Paper Factory, 1 Turnhouse Road, Edinburgh, EH12 8NP.
• Area: West Edinburgh, close to Edinburgh Gateway.
• Daytime access: Free to enter during the day.
• Evening access: Ticket required after 6pm.
• Weekend headliners: Jenny Hval on Friday, Valtos Presents: High Water Mark on Saturday.
• Transport: Bus, tram and train links are within about a five-minute walk.
• Parking: Hidden Door’s venue page pushes public transport and does not list general event parking, so tram or train looks like the sensible option. This is an inference from the official travel info rather than a published parking policy.

Getting there looks a lot easier than the industrial setting might suggest. Hidden Door says bus, tram and train connections are all within around five minutes’ walk of the site, with Edinburgh Gateway and Edinburgh Park named as the main nearby rail links.

From the city centre, the official venue page lists Lothian 17 and 31, Lothian Country X18 and X19, and the Airlink 100 to Maybury Road.

That matters because Hidden Door tends to work best when you treat it as a wander rather than a quick in-and-out gig. It’s a festival built around discovery.

The organisers say 2026 will once again bring together music, visual art, dance, spoken word, special events and installations, with performances scattered through the venue and another collaborative installation from Tinderbox Collective. They’re also continuing work with the Edinburgh International Mural Festival at the site.

Hidden Door Venues Through The Years

This is where Hidden Door stands out from most Edinburgh festival listings. It doesn’t just change line-ups. It changes the shape of the event itself by moving into buildings and sites that are usually unused, half-forgotten, or closed to the public.

The list below is useful context if you’re new to the festival, or if you’ve been before and want a reminder of how often it reinvents itself. Hidden Door’s own history pages confirm the festival’s run of spaces from the Market Street vaults through to The Paper Factory.

• 2014: Market Street vaults, East Market Street, Old Town
  Hidden Door says its first full festival took place in the then-disused Market Street vaults in March 2014. The retrospective uses the name “Market Street vaults” rather than a numbered postal address, so East Market Street is the safest way to label it.
• 2015 and 2016: Street lighting depot, Kings Stables Road, off the Grassmarket
  Hidden Door’s own history piece says the festival moved to the buildings and courtyard of the disused street lighting depot on Kings Stables Road. Again, the official retrospective gives the road and setting rather than a numbered address.
• 2017, 2018 and 2019 weekender: Leith Theatre, 28-30 Ferry Road, Leith, EH6 4AE
  Hidden Door’s official music backgrounder confirms the Leith Theatre years, and Leith Theatre’s own site gives the full address.
• 2018: former State Cinema, 204-208 Great Junction Street, Leith
  Hidden Door’s press history says the festival also took up residence in the derelict former State Cinema in 2018, and Historic Environment Scotland’s Trove entry identifies it at 204-208 Great Junction Street.
• 2021: Granton Gasworks, West Shore Road, Granton
  Hidden Door’s 2021 venue announcement says the festival headed to Granton Gasworks, with the site at West Shore Road.
• 2022: Old Royal High School, 5-7 Regent Road
  Hidden Door’s venue history confirms the Old Royal High School on Calton Hill, and Trove identifies the site as 5-7 Regent Road.
• 2023: former Scottish Widows complex, 15 Dalkeith Road
  Hidden Door’s 2023 venue announcement names the former Scottish Widows complex at 15 Dalkeith Road.
• 2024: Basement 3, St James Quarter, St James Crescent, EH1 3AD
  Hidden Door’s birthday-party announcement confirms Basement 3 at St James Quarter, and St James Quarter’s official contact page gives the main site address as St James Crescent, Edinburgh, EH1 3AD.
• 2025 and 2026: The Paper Factory, 1 Turnhouse Road, Edinburgh, EH12 8NP
  Hidden Door’s venue and ticket pages confirm the current site and address.

Our tips

Book a weekend evening first if that’s when you want to go.
Friday and Saturday are the most obvious pressure points because those are the nights with the already-announced headline sets.

Use public transport unless you’ve got a very good reason not to.
The venue is better connected than it looks on paper, and Hidden Door’s own travel info leans heavily on tram, rail and bus access.

Treat it like a place to explore, not just a gig.
That has always been the Hidden Door appeal. Even with the full programme still to come, the organisers are already framing 2026 around installations, performances and work scattered across the site, not just a main-stage setup.