Open Mic Night

The Wee Red Bar hosts another Open Mic on Thursday 29 October, from 7pm to 10pm. It's part of the ECA Open Mic Nights collection run by the Reid School of Music at the Edinburgh College of Art, so the night is rooted in the college's music department rather than being a standalone club night. The room is set up with two microphones, a piano and a guitar, and the session is open to everyone, with space on the bill for visiting performers alongside the college's own up-and-coming singer-songwriters. If you're coming to watch, you'll hear a mix of students testing out new material and guest performers from across the city.

It sits within Edinburgh's wider open-mic circuit, that low-key layer of live music that runs alongside the ticketed one-off bills. Most of these nights take walk-in sign-ups on the door, and a handful of regulars can eventually work their way towards a featured or paid support slot. This one follows that same pattern: it's as much about the people who turn up every week as it is about the individual acts on any given night. If you've got something you've been working on, you can sign up and get it in front of an audience without needing a booking or a promoter.

The venue is the Wee Red Bar at the Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place, EH3 9DF. It runs from 7pm to 10pm on Thursday 29 October, so it's a mid-week spot rather than a weekend one. If you're planning to perform, it's worth arriving early to get your name on the list.