Hidden Door has announced the takeover of a vast industrial site for their 2025 arts festival.

The event will take place at the Paper Factory – located in the Maybury Quarter, a 15.5-acre site occupied by the former Saica paper and cardboard manufacturing facility (relocated to Livingston) on the western edge of Edinburgh.

The site features a mix of warehouses, factory floors, offices and outhouses, and as it is bounded by the Edinburgh Gateway tram and rail station, has good transport links to the city centre as well as to Glasgow and the west.

Hidden Door will transform the entire site for its annual multi arts festival in spring 2025, and have also announced the launch party for Friday 22 and Saturday 23 November, with live music and visual art, which will give audiences a preview of some of the spaces within.

Full details of the November programme will be announced next month, with tickets now on sale. As with previous Hidden Door events, there will be free access during the day on Saturday 23 November.

The new venue is just one in a string of unusual loactions for the event since 2010, which saw the first of two Hidden Doors at the Roxy Art House. With that venue’s closure, the festival moved to Market Street, then Kings’ Stables Road, Leith Theatre, Granton Gasworks, the old Royal High School on Calton Hill, the former Scottish Widows building, as well as, earlier this year, the St James Centre car park for a 10th anniversary celebration.

Festival Director Hazel Johnson, said: “Every new venue we take on presents unique opportunities and challenges, and this vast space is no different. We can’t wait to start work transforming the towering buildings, acres of warehouses and – in true Hidden Door style – all the nooks and crannies into one of our most ambitious arts venues yet.

“In addition to the festival, The Paper Factory will provide a base for Hidden Door to work with artists on site specific performance and art, commission new work and take huge steps towards our sustainability goals with workshops, studios and more.

“Our Venue Launch Party in November will provide a sneak peek into what we have in store – we look forward to welcoming you to the Paper Factory!”

More at hiddendoorarts.org/venue