Winter Festival is the perfect antidote to seasonal blues
The Ayoub Sisters
Once again, Soundhouse’s Winter Festival (27 November to 1 December 2025) at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, proved to be the perfect antidote to beating the dark winter blues.
The festival, now in its second year, ran over five days thanks to support from The National Lottery through Creative Scotland and included some of the finest spoken word artists, jazz, and folk musicians from across Scotland.
The Festival was particularly popular with locals, with 72% of those attending from Edinburgh, and 22% coming from the rest of Scotland.
The opening night was packed with music fans and lovers of silent film who came to hear Graeme Stephen perform his updated score written to accompany Fritz Lang’s cult classic Metropolis (1927). The music was performed by Stephen on guitar, Tom Bancroft on percussion and drums, and a classical string quartet led by Fiona Winning on viola, Sonia Cromarty on cello, and Tom Hanky and George Smith on violin.
Other packed highlights included harpist and lead vocalist Dara Dubh playing tracks from her forthcoming debut album with Toni McVey on drums, Eve Simpson on keys/vocals, and Brad Phillips on double bass; an afternoon (dry concert) with award-winning musical duo The Ayoub Sisters; followed by a sold-out early evening slot with Cahalen Morrison (guitar), Fergus McCreadie (keys) and Corrie Dick (drums) performing songs from his forthcoming new album The Rolling Thunder of The Sea due out in the spring; and Saturday night’s headliner Scottish Jazz Vocalist of the Year Niki King.
Sunday night also saw audiences flocking to the Traverse for Chris Amer performing a mix of jazz and trad music from his new collection of ‘musical sketches’ inspired by, and performed against a backdrop of old film photographs taken by his Orcadian grandfather Danny Nicolson. Amer who plays the Amertenor – a unique 7-string theorbed tenor guitar was accompanied by a hugely talented line-up including Matt Carmichael (saxophone), Fergus McCreadie (keys), Gus Stirrat (bass), Stephen Henderson (drums) and Mhairi Marwick (fiddle).
The festival also shone a spotlight on new up-and-coming talent by programming an afternoon concert for two new bands – The Ewan Johnston Trio and the Milele Collective, and guitarist Timmy Allan who played a brilliant mix of jazz, latin, and African grooves.
Jane Ann Purdy and Douglas Robertson, producers of the Soundhouse Winter Festival said: “Listening to live music is the best antidote for this dark time of year and featuring a line-up of Scotland’s musicians is a great way to mark St Andrew’s Day. This year’s festival has been heart warming and life affirming and we’re delighted to have been able to join some of our favourite artists, and some new up-and-coming performers, with an appreciative audience. It’s great to see Edinburgh’s music loving community coming out in support of live music at a time of year when all we hear 24/7 are Christmas tunes! Huge thanks once again to Creative Scotland who help make the festival happen.”
The Soundhouse Organisation returns in May with more live music at the Traverse for Edinburgh Tradfest (1-11 May 2026).
Dates for the Soundhouse Winter Festival 2026 will be 26-30 November.
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