St James Quar­ter Ses­sions is back for its third year (15^th to 24^th August) with a packed line up tak­ing over the East End of the city. 

Hap­pen­ing dur­ing the Edin­burgh Fes­ti­val Fringe at St James Quar­ter, this year’s fes­ti­val pro­gramme sees over 60 acts per­form­ing across the devel­op­ment, includ­ing the Lev­el 6 rooftop, with panoram­ic views of Scotland’s cap­i­tal and castle.

The Brand New Heav­ies will be bring­ing icon­ic acid-jazz hits such as “You Are The Uni­verse” and “Mid­night At The Oasis”. Glas­gow rap­per Bemz will be kick­ing off this year’s main event with a Fri­day night per­for­mance on the Lev­el 6 Cas­tle View stage. 

Slat­ed for the Lev­el 3 Yel­low Stage and hail­ing from the small Scot­tish town of Cro­mar­ty, High­lands singer song­writer, Tamzene will be bring­ing her unique sound to Ses­sions. She will deliv­er an inti­mate set of R&B‑tinged pop bal­lads that draw on a nuanced mix of Irish, Jamaican and High­land roots.

Niger­ian-born and Edin­burgh-raised, James Emmanuel will also be bring­ing his soul­ful sounds to the Yel­low Stage on Lev­el 3 of the Gal­le­ria. Raised as the son of a preach­er, he first found his voice in gospel choirs, a ground­ing that shaped his soul­ful sound from the begin­ning. Now backed by BBC Intro­duc­ing, James draws inspi­ra­tion from leg­ends like Mar­vin Gaye and Bob­by “Blue” Bland.

Fresh from mak­ing her Glas­ton­bury debut this year, Cort­ney Dixon will bring a set of indie-pop anthems. Expect fuzz laden gui­tars and a rau­cous per­for­mance from the North East’s lat­est hot prop­er­ty. And Grass­roots music cham­pi­ons Wide Days will be tak­ing over the Cas­tle View stage with their ‘New From Scot­land’ series, show­cas­ing Scotland’s hottest new talent. 

Scot­tish duo The Lau­rettes will be bring­ing their unique take on Celtic-folk to the Ses­sions stage, sup­port­ed by their all-female band. A else­where on the bill will be Dara Dubh, Beth Miller, Ant Thomaz, Indoor Fox­es, Dic­ta­tor, Jus­tine Bev­er­ley and more.

Down­load the St James Quar­ter App, which allows every­one to stay updat­ed with events hap­pen­ing through­out the des­ti­na­tion for Ses­sions and beyond.

Says Susan Hewlett, Fes­ti­val Cre­ator at St James Quar­ter: “At a time when fes­ti­val tick­ets have nev­er been high­er and inde­pen­dent venues are clos­ing across the coun­try, we’re not only putting on this incred­i­ble line-up for free, but also giv­ing exist­ing and emerg­ing artists the plat­form to con­tin­ue being heard and dis­cov­ered. We’ve even got clean toi­lets, no mud, and food and drink venues on tap”

St James Quar­ter has con­tin­ued to back grass­roots musi­cians this year, part­ner­ing with Forth 1’s Boo­gie In The Morn­ing for a tal­ent search that will let one win­ner bag a rooftop stage per­for­mance slot, a cash prize of £1000 and record­ing time at W Edinburgh’s in-house stu­dio, with four runners‑up being offered sets on the festival’s Yel­low Stage.

Pho­tos – Chris Watt Photography