North Edinburgh Community Festival is a free, family friendly festival that has happened for the last 3 years in West Pilton Park. There are loads of activities, stalls, live music, workshops, food, parade, sports, jobs, skills and learning. Tinderbox have led on organising the music for the festival since it started and have also sat on the steering committee since the beginning. The festival has now grown to having around 10k attendees! 

This year over 600 young people from across North Edinburgh have taken part in the Tinderbox Garage Band Challenge, creating their own new music for the event. The winners will be performing their original tracks on the main stage at the festival. 

We had more than 30 acts playing over the afternoon including over 160 performers, almost all of them from the local neighbourhood. On the outdoor stage, highlights include the incredible Fischy Music, Ama-zing Harmonies Choir, Heritage Of India Through Dance and Edinburgh Ukrainian choir. 

On the indoor stage we had an exciting lineup of youth bands who are part of ‘North By North West’ a collaboration project between 5 youth music organisations across North Edinburgh the aim is to get the very best emerging talent out onto the Edinburgh music scene. From the slick electronic pop of Muirhouse local (and BBC Introducing alumni) Laurent, Granton rapper Leon Highway, or the pop-rock stylings of Drenched in Dreams – we had something to suit all tastes. Amazing youth artists A420, Kieran Crosbie, Mezari, and Trisha Muco finished out the festival in collaboration with players from Tinderbox Orchestra.

The Tinderbox Games Showcase, an exhibition of playable games made by young game designers of all ages from North Edinburgh was happening in the Sports Hall at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre. These will were featured alongside an exciting new escape room made in collaboration with young people from Granton Youth, which drew inspiration from trips to the Granton Hub archives and the area’s rich history, as well as a selection of games made by previous winners of the East Lothian Game Jam. There were a mix of digital, physical and table-top games made by the next up-and-coming generation of game designers and creators from the neighbourhood.