What does it look like to live in a city that is a key participant in a giant, often elitist cultural industry? What happens if you live here, make art, but don’t have access to the funding and platforms that lead to prestige and success?  What is it like to have a world famous arts festival come to town that often seems to exist in a separate dimension from the lives of most of the city’s residents? And what does access to arts and education mean in practice, especially for working class people and those existing outside of the city and wider central belt?

Join us for a programme of short films and discussion to explore these questions collectively. 

• Business As Usual (2024, Brazil/Portugal, 23 minutes)
• Okay Keskidee Let Me See Inside (2025, UK, 20 minutes)
• Community Theatre (2025, Scotland,13 minutes)
• Arts The Catalyst (2004, Scotland, 17 minutes

We will have an introduction from EMBASSY and a post screening discussion, moderated by Rachel Hamada from Take One Action, who will be joined by:

• Tomiwa Folorunso, co chair at Take One Action, and founder of JALI film weekender
• Lewis Baillie, director, Community Theatre
• Hayley Dawson, Scottish Working Class Network
• Rehan Yousuf, Sett Studios and former North Edinburgh Arts Community Worker

Access: All films will have dialogue subtitles. Please let us know if you need BSL interpretation when booking. You can find more access information on the EMBASSY website.

More about the wider Culture Vultures programme at EMBASSY Gallery:

“Culture – a plant producing prize blooms of opera, ballet, theatre and art. Exhibited annually at the Edinburgh Festival and picked by the discerning few who descend on the city to sample the blossom- The Culture Vultures. But without the roots and the main stem the plant would die.”

‘Culture Vultures’ is a musical written by Donald Campbell and Helen Crummy that was first performed as part of the 1977 Craigmillar Festival. The inaugural Festival took place in 1964 and was organised by the Peffermill Mother’s Group; success of ensuing festivals led to the formation of the Craigmillar Festival Society in 1969, which became an internationally recognised community arts group that operated year round.

One of their most effective strategies, as noted by Craigmillar Now director Rachael Cloughton, was their ability to “use the arts’ incredible potency to create massive social change.” They often did this through musicals, which local people wrote and performed in.

‘Culture Vultures’ is a story of two festivals – the International and the Craigmillar Festival. The former being programmed for a consumer of culture, the latter revolving around the issues, needs and desires of a community. The plot touches upon the economic imbalance between the two, but also the potential for real change and action offered by the arts.

At a time where Scotland’s cultural sector at large seems ever more detached from those living within it, nearly 50 years later the story is more pertinent than ever.

Amidst the August commotion Embassy invites its audiences to pause and reflect on the legacy of a community festival, to think about how we might take action to demand structural change today. The surrounding events programme will engage with the themes of the script, focusing on their significance alongside interconnected contemporary struggles of economic depravity, rising facism and an ongoing Palestinian genocide.

Archival footage of the original 1977 performance and the script will be available to read in the space. To view the full archive please visit and volunteer with Craigmillar Now. We endlessly grateful for all the support, enthusiasm and time that they have given us.