Jupiter Rising: Boutique music, art, film and glamping festival to go ahead on outskirts of Edinburgh

The 1000-capacity Jupiter Rising event will feature singers, musicians, DJs, visual artists and filmmakers from across Scotland.

It will be staged across the 125-acre grounds of the Jupiter Artland sculpture park, near Edinburgh Airport.

The three-day event, which will offer festivalgoers the chance to hire luxury bell tents, is lined up for the final weekend in August and will coincide with the end of the Fringe.

The festival, which will boast its own cinema, will see new works of art specially created for the landscape.

It is hoped that this year’s event will provide a crucial platform for established and up-and-coming artists and performers whose work has been affected by the pandemic.

Running from 27-29 August, the event has committed to ensure women and non-binary performers make up more than half of its line-up.

Billed as “a firmly independent and artist-driven festival,” Jupiter Rising is being developed in collaboration with the record labels Night School and Lost Map, DJ Sarra Wild and producer Wezi Mhura, who instigated the Black Lives Matter mural trail across Scotland last year.

The music line-up will include Pictish Trail, Rachel Aggs, Free Love, Callum Easter, Romeo Taylor, Alabaster dePlume, Container, Lady Neptune, Guttersnipe and Helena Celle.

Artists creating new work for the event include Aqsa Arif, Saoirse Amira Anis, Kyalo Searle-Mbullu, Cindy Islam and Farah Hussai, and Taahlia & Huss, while Linder Sterling, Piplotti Rist and Lauren le Rose will have their filmmaking showcased.

Billed as a "campout festival,” Jupiter Rising will be able to go ahead under Scotland’s route map out of lockdown, which envisages outdoor events for up to 1000 people at the end of June, with the site big enough to accommodate any social distancing restrictions which will be in place at the time.

Claire Feeley, head of exhibitions and learning at Jupiter Artland, who is co-curating the festival programme, said: “The festival will be designed to be welcoming, safe and a beautifully small thing.

“Everyone has the right to feel a little bit nervous, but there is so much space for the festival, which will be spread out across our whole 125-acre estate.

“We’re incredibly privileged and very lucky because we own our site that we’re able to host live music, performance and art this summer.

"We feel it’s our duty as a cultural venue to do this event for artists who have been sitting on albums and recording during lockdown. Unless they can begin playing live again they might have to choose another career.

"We’re at risk of a whole generation of artists being silenced. Jupiter Rising is still a small player in a big industry. Nevertheless, if we can use our beautiful open landscape at Jupiter Artland to make folk feel safe, welcome and comfortable getting out to see live music and art again, that’s a great thing to do.”

Jupiter Artland director Nicky Wilson said: “Art, music, performance, feasting and dancing - I can’t think of a better way of evoking the spirit of Jupiter Artland whilst supporting emerging artists and performers.

“This art-led festival will create a space for experimental, content-rich projects in an iconic landscape.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.

Neil McIntosh

Editor