The
pictures on Morvern Cunningham’s office wall look like little time capsules of the
ghosts of Leiths past. In her upstairs room in the Albion Road business centre
that is a thriving hub of grassroots artistic activity, Cunningham is
surrounded by posters from previous editions of LeithLate, the mini DIY festival
she founded in 2011.
With
LeithLate’s latest incarnation happening over two days and nights this coming
weekend, the posters chart a story of LeithLate’s initial one-night event
featuring a collection of now long-lost bands and a series of pop-up
exhibitions in multiple premises running the length of Leith Walk. Other posters
continue the story, of how the festival has expanded and contracted over the
last nine years before arriving at this year’s event, run in conjunction with
Leith Festival.
Next
to the posters is a large map of old Leith, revealing an engrossing image of
how the port looked before being amalgamated into Edinburgh almost a century
ago, with the construction of Leith Theatre a pay-off of sorts. There is even a
dotted line, Cunningham points out, marking the old border between Edinburgh
and Leith, where different licensing laws saw Leith a more hospitable place it
has arguably always been.
This
year’s LeithLate aims to continue that tradition over a weekend that sees
Cunningham and team co-curate the mainstage at Leith Gala Day with an
all-female line-up of bands and DJs moving from Leith Links Saturday afternoon
to the Happiness Hotel venue in Queen Charlotte Street to a club night at the
FAB Cricket Club back at the Links. A graffiti jam and a Leith Mural Tour
complete the weekend, which follows on from April’s Basque film and food crawl.
More events will follow later in the year.
“We
decided for various reasons not to have it as a big festival this year,” says
Cunningham, “and doing it like this kind of extends the idea of having a
cluster of activities.”
This
year’s collaboration with Leith Festival also sees LeithLate plugging in to
other community ventures.
“We’ve
always done that to a certain extent,’ says Cunningham. “At the one-night only
event we programmed maybe just under half of what went on, but a lot of the
bars and other spaces programmed their own activity. So it’s not like we we were
ever artificially transplanting artistic activity into Leith. LeithLate is very
much about showcasing what’s already going on here.”
This was
one of the initial motivations for Cunningham to start LeithLate in the first
place in what now looks like a very different time.
“I think
back then there was a more negative perception of Leith than there is now,” she
says. “There was still an attitude that existed among some people that made
them question why you want to go out in Leith at all, even though there was
lots of great stuff going on here. That first year it was a case of bringing
all the different strands together across ten venues and amplifying it. That
was the impetus, but what’s scary is that hardly any of those spaces exist
anymore.”
Such has
been the Edinburgh way ever since Cunningham first moved there from Glasgow to
study. After stints collecting glasses, picking up litter and managing box
office in Edinburgh Festival Fringe venues, she ended up doing a post-graduate
degree in cultural management and policy.
A turning
point for Cunningham was her time at the Roxy venue, then run as a totally
independent DIY entity. This was before the financial collapse of its landlords
at Edinburgh University Settlement eventually led to the south-side former
church being taken over by the Assembly organisation.
“The Roxy
felt like a breath of fresh air,” she says, “and felt like what Edinburgh
needed.”
It was
this attitude that helped drive Cunningham to found LeithLate in a
neighbourhood currently under siege by developers.
“Even in
2016 we were having conversations about the gentrification of Leith,” she says,
“how artists are implicated in the gentrification process, and how it’s a recognisable
cycle. I would argue that capitalism not only exploits the working class
communities in areas like Leith, but also exploits the artists who make those
areas bohemian, everyone in that area gets pushed out to the sides by luxury
flats and other developments.
“We’re
very aware of the context we’re working in. We’re not parachuted in. We’re a
local group, with ninety per cent of our board Leith residents. We’re on the
fringes, and have been since LeithLate started. We’re trying to advocate for
creativity in the community, and to celebrate Leith through what we do.”
Where
Cunningham would once fund LeithLate out of her own pocket by maxing out her
bank account and hoping she could make it back through ticket sales, LeithLate
has gradually received pockets of public funding. For the next five years,
relative security will come by way of City of Edinburgh Council, with further commercial
support from the Baillie Gifford company.
“That
took us by surprise,” Cunningham says. “It’s not a massive amount, but it allows
us to be able to think about what LeithLate can be. One of the main barriers we’d
had to just existing, which any grassroots or small voluntary organisation has
to face, is just having security. If you’re working on a project to project basis,
it’s really tiring.
“At the
same time, I think it’s really important that artists, producers and curators
are made aware of the possibilities in being implicated in corporate objectives.
Sometimes if you take money, you’re expected to deliver certain objectives, but
that’s not the case with any of our funders. We haven’t been told what to do,
who to work with or what to say.”
LeithLate
has taken on a part-time producer, and, with the centenary year of Leith’s
amalgamation with Edinburgh coming up next year, Cunningham has ambitious plans
to accompany it.
“In some
ways it feels exciting,” she says. ‘Leith feels like it’s empowering itself and
taking ownership. The whole Save Leith Walk campaign has been amazing, and has
really highlighted the fact that people in Leith won’t stand for endless
soulless development in this area. I think there’s a resurgence. There’s lots
of stuff going on, and LeithLate can be one way of bringing it all together.
“One
thing I’ve always noticed is how busy Leith is if you’re trying to do things.
There’s the community council, the rotary club, business association; all this
stuff happening all the time, and all rubbing up against each other. I think
that way of collective working is the future.”
LeithLate
19 Weekend runs this Saturday and Sunday. Full details can be found at www.leithlate.co.uk
The Herald, June 5th 2019.
Ends
Comments