Edinburgh Soup, the innovative live music night to support local community projects, is back for its seventh event at Assembly Roxy, Roxburgh Place, Edinburgh.
The idea of Edinburgh Soup is simple. Guests donate a minimum of £5. They get locally-made food. They get great new music. But, most importantly, they get to hear from Edinburgh-based projects that need their help.
Each project does a simple pitch. At the end, everyone votes for the idea they like best, and the winning project gets the pot of donations. The project then returns to a future Soup to say how they've got on.
Edinburgh Soup was set up in October 2015 by promoters Phil Bolger and Robert Peacock, and was the first night of its kind in Scotland. Since then, it has established itself on the live music circuit, while raising four figure sums for the likes of the Grassmarket Community Project, Positive Help and, at the most recent event in January, the Broomhouse Centre. This year will see four more community groups pitch their ideas to the public.
“When we did our first Soup we weren’t sure where it would lead,” says Peacock. “But we’ve been amazed at the response from the Edinburgh community. People have a real enthusiasm for the event and there’s always such a good reception for the projects that come to speak to us.”
“The audience are brilliant,” added Bolger. “They’re there for a good night out, but they also really get behind the spirit of the event which is to bring the community together to do something positive. And we’ve had fantastic support from the partners who’ve been with us since the beginning.”
Local businesses are instrumental in supporting the event. Leading Edinburgh eaterie and the first Soup cafe in Scotland and Taste Award winners, Union of Genius, supply soup for the event, and artisan bakers the Wee Boulangerie on Clerk Street bake a special batch of bread, All About Patisserie rustle up some delicious cake, and Rabbie’s Trail Burners, the small group tour company, donate a cash sum to the final pot, boosting the cash injection the winning project will receive.
Music for this edition of Soup will be supplied by local artists Amy Duncan, whose 6th album Antidote has just been released on her own Filly Records label. Pete Deane and the Black Kites will join her and one act is still to be announced!
Edinburgh Soup will be at Assembly Roxy, Thu 25 May, 7pm. Tickets are available from eventbrite. Search Edinburgh Soup Facebook www.facebook.com/edinburghsoup
Twitter @edinburghsoup