The First Edinburgh Police Box Festival Brings Art and Community to City Streets

The Edinburgh Police Box Festival held in July 2015 marked the first event of its kind in the city. During the weekend festival, eleven old police boxes located around Edinburgh opened their doors to the public, transforming into miniature venues dedicated to hosting food, charity, and art shows. The unique event gathered positive media coverage from several local publications and broadcasters, including The Spurtle, The Edinburgh Evening News, and STV.

Artist Andrew Redmond Barr designed the official festival map and utilized a space inside the Leith Walk police box to exhibit his own artwork throughout the weekend, with photographer Simon Baker capturing images of the event. A key feature of the exhibition was an interactive map of Scotland that invited members of the public to answer the question, “What kind of place would you like to live in?”

Visitors contributed a wide variety of written responses directly onto the interactive map over the weekend. The public answers highlighted a range of community desires and humorous suggestions, which included:

A green and sunny place

Food to be a human right

Equal

Independent

I want to live in a sofa bed