LeithLate14 returns for a fourth year in an expanded format, with a full weekend of art, music, film and spoken word. There are over twenty-five venues with newcomers Collective on Calton Hill, Embassy Gallery, Gayfield Creative Spaces, Vision Mechanics and Coburg House Art Studios joining the mix.

Coburg House Studios

The festival continues its visual art focus with a showcase of Ugandan contemporary art festival KLA ART in two photography installations. There’s also painting, video, sculpture, illustration, photography, collage, printmaking, performance, textiles and jewellery. Don’t miss internationally exhibiting Berlin-based Edinburgh artist Andrew Gilbert’s paintings and sculpture at his Settlement Projects charity shop installation.

Monument to Andrew the Zulu Queen – Andrew Gilbert

LeithLate are also curating a special outdoor exhibition with Leith Walkers which captures the characters of Leith Walk. Take part in the exhibition by having a photo snapped at the LeithLate mobile photo booth.

Leith Walkers

Get around the festival by jumping on the bespoke LeithLate vintage red London bus and enjoy travelling to different venues in style with the occasional live music performance (Saturday only).

Rhubaba Choir

Music continues to play an important role in the festival. Holy Mountain will headline at the Saturday night afterparty venue along with SAY award-nominated Adam Stafford and others. William Douglas and King Creosote will perform on Sunday at the LeithLate Bruncheon. Be sure to check out the Rhubaba choir and the live music at Elvis Shakespeare.

Bruncheon

LeithLate 14 will take place on Saturday 21 June from 5pm-10pm and on Sunday 22 June from 12pm-5pm. For more details see the LeithLate website.

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I started working when I was teenager, but I’m not sure if that’s illegal so I won’t speak about it.

1. My first job in London was as a video game tester, I worked at Square Enix playing games all day long and making sure that all the features and the translations in the different languages were good, functioning and accurate. That was fun.

2. Not long after that I got a job at PR Newswire in one of the subdivisions. I was a media analyst focusing on media monitoring. It was around 2003 so we did the monitoring manually looking at newspapers and magazines to identify coverage… if only I would have known about the amazing tools that were to arrive later on. I produced reports that helped brands identify how their new products were accepted by the press.

3. My next big step was in 2004, I interviewed at Google a few times (actually 9 interviews). I was lucky to be selected and I entered an important period of my life that was defined by a lot of learning and moving at a fast pace. I had always been a geek girl, but when I started working at there I felt at home, so it was great. At Google I did 4 different jobs between the Sales and the Marketing teams. I spent almost 6 years working hard and at some point I left.

4. After Google, I felt like the world was my oyster, and I was very intrigued by exploring more my creative side so I decided to start Alpha-ville, is an organisation that wants to investigate the cross over between art, technology and society. I really love this project. It focuses on an annual festival that is just about to happen.

5. Apart from Alpha-ville I currently work as a freelance online consultant helping companies make the most out of their websites and implementing online tools that allow them to make decisions. Since recently also moving onto the mobile app world.

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.

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At college in Brighton in 1977 I was elected vice president of the Students Union on an anarchist ticket and spent a year promoting the Clash, Damned Vibrators, Stranglers and Siouxie. I got introduced to Situationist theory and the glories of performance art, set up a contemporary art festival with Roger Ely, promoted Genesis P. Orage’s Throbbing Gristle and started an enduring creative relationship with Ian Smith of Mischief La Bas.

I followed that with seven years teaching Drama whilst performing in local bands with names like the New Rotics, Extremists in an Igloo and The Screaming Sirens.  I eventually found modest success with a performance group called the Wild Wigglers.

Around the same time I set up an underground club called The Zap, which mixed leading edge art and entertainment. We championed Stomp, The Blue Man Group, Kathy Acker, the Bow Gamelan Orchestra, the entire first generation of alternative comedy,  Oasis, U2 and countless others at the beginnings of their career. I also set up a religion with Ian Smith based around surfing. By the mid 80′s we were programming at the South Bank and ICA and then picking up on house music and creating “art raves” that toured Europe with artists, entertainers and DJs taking over warehouses for parties.

In 1988 I was invited to Glasgow to create festivals and events as part of the preparations for 1990′s European City of Culture. We created a company called Street Biz.  (Our first gig was at the Briggait, which I returned to when it reopened last year: UZ are based there, and of course it’s now the location for Vault.)  We put on Slam, Bing Hitler the group that was to become Stomp, Julian Clary and many others.  The whole period was very exciting: lots of street theatre and large-scale events like the first big Hogmanays and the Big Day Out.

In 1994 we set up UZ and were very lucky to be involved in developing some great events with a very talented team of artists, organisers and crew. A personal highlight was 1999’s Wrap the World project when I made a piece of work that linked artists across 6 countries and 4 continents and was televised to a ridiculously large audience.  Some of the best fun was setting up Dressed to Kilt fashion show as part of Tartan Week in New York and showcasing Scotland in Toronto with Scottish Ballet, astonishing the locals by dancing to the Nine Inch Nails remixed by Aphex Twin.

I’m a surfer, and so I first went to Sri Lanka to follow my sport, however, in the past few years I’ve set up an arts centre there which runs training in performance, IT, art and English. We also offer residencies to international artists, one of which led last year to an extraordinary show, Life Streaming, by the Dutch theatre maker Dries Verhoeven. The performers were in Sri Lanka and the audience in festivals across Europe, watching live streaming online. As a progression of my involvement there, I’ve become the Director of Colombo Arts Biennale.

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.