Just Festival

Edinburgh’s social justice and human rights festival

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Just Festival Announces New Festival Manager

Just Festival Announces New Festival Manager

 

Just Festival is delighted to announce Miranda Heggie has taken up the role of Festival Manager, starting this year. Miranda will be returning to Edinburgh from Birmingham, where she has managed Birmingham Contemporary Music Group’s talent development programme, NEXT. Prior to this, Miranda has worked for Edinburgh International Festival, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and St.  Mary’s Music School, as well as enjoying a freelance career as music and arts writer.

“I’m deeply honoured to be leading Just Festival, following on from Helen Trew’s amazing work guiding it through all the challenges of the pandemic. I feel that Just is a necessary voice in the canon of Edinburgh’s August festivals, providing a platform and a space for audiences and artists to engage with the social challenges and key questions facing today’s world. Since the beginnings of human history, every society and civilisation has engaged in some form of art. I believe that this innate and eternal human need for artistic expression is part of what gives it its power to heal and enhance social empathy and understanding, and I am both excited and humbled to deliver a festival which celebrates this, and developing it over the coming years. My aim is not only to nurture the festival as a space where ideas, thoughts, practices and values from across the world can be shared and explored, but also embed it within the social fabric of Edinburgh by fostering connections between those from different faiths, countries and backgrounds.”

 Miranda Heggie, Festival Manager 2022


“The Just Festival Board is delighted to announce the appointment of its new Festival Manager, Miranda Heggie.  Miranda is an experienced arts and events manager, with a strong knowledge of the festival sector in Scotland as well as in the whole of the UK and internationally. As the Just Festival moves into its 22nd August Festival, it aims to continue to create a space for dialogue, as well as platforms for engagement in local, national and international questions of justice and identity.  Having a platform for exploring these issues through social, political, ecological and faith perspectives is vital and valuable. I am confident that under Miranda’s capable leadership, the Just Festival will continue to thrive and to challenge and inspire new audiences”.

Janet Rennie, Convenor of the Just Festival Board


Special thanks go to St Johns Episcopal Church and the Just Board: Janet Rennie, Mark Hoskyns-Abrahall, Markus Dunzkofer, Finlay Ross Russell. Cate Chen and Sarah Armes.


Helen Trew, Director Just Festival“It’s been a real privilege to lead Just Festival over the last couple of years.  It’s a unique and powerful Festival which provides a much needed moment of reflection during the hectic weeks of the Fringe.  Every director of Just Festival brings their whole selves to the programming, and I’m delighted to be handing over the baton to Miranda who will rise admirably to the challenge and inspiration that the festival brings. I’m so looking forward to seeing the festival grow and develop under her stewardship.”

Helen Trew, Festival Director 2020-2021

Just Festival

Press Release – Every Girl Matters (Talk)

Just Festival

Every Girl Matters is part of our series of talks and conversations. Gender equality is one of the central themes of the Just Festival. This event focuses on working to bring change to the global disparity between the sexes.

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Just Festival

Press-Release- The Island

Just Festival

The Island is an award-winning and acclaimed apartheid-era play set on Robben Island telling a moving story celebrating hope, passion and resilience. Two cellmates perform futile physical labour by day while rehearsing a makeshift performance of Sophocles’ play Antigone by night. learn more

The Wee Review

Review – We Are

Just Festival
4 Star Review
Dance and music inspired by African culture is almost always joyous, and We Are is no exception. learn more

Edinburgh Reporter

Review – Bloominauschwitz

Just Theatre - 5 Star Review
Leopold Bloom is stuck. Stuck in a book, stuck in a routine, stuck in the same clothes. He’s even stuck on the toilet.

As the hero of James Joyce’s Ulysses, Bloom’s life is entirely a creation of the author. He is everyman and no man, a genial soul required to repeat the events of 16 June 1904 forever. But when Bloom starts to question things, to abandon Joyce and look for his own identity, he discovers that nothing is as simple as it seems, and that becoming too obsessed with any one point of view can have terrible consequences.
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Edinburgh Reporter

Review – Dr Korczak’s Example

Just Festival

4 Star Review

David Greig’s solemn play is set in the hot summer of 1942 in an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto where Dr Janusz Korczak is caring for 200 young people. They are in the heart of an area covering a few streets into which 350,000 Jews have been crammed. learn more

Just Festival

Press Release – Faith-based Courts

Just Festival

What autonomy should faith-based and family courts have in the UK? And how can it be ensured that an individual’s basic human rights, and the right to a fair trial, are respected within a religious framework? learn more

Just Festival

Press Release – Alabaster Box

Just Festival

Acappella from Africa to rock the Edinburgh Fringe. Ghana’s leading a cappella/Afroppella quartet, Alabaster Box returns to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year with a mix bag of gospel Afroppella music presentation dubbed Sounds from Gold Coast. learn more

Just Festival

Press Release – Bloominauschwitz

Something is going very wrong for Leopold Bloom, the hero of James Joyce’s great novel ‘Ulysses’ and a worldwide phenomenon. learn more

Just Festival review

2018 Just Festival Review

Just Festival
From apartheid-era drama to creative responses to terrorism, Just Festival looks injustice square in the eye.

Celebrating humanity in all its diverse forms might not be in vogue for some of our world leaders, but the Edinburgh Festival has always promoted fairness and eclecticism in equal measure. At the heart of that mission is the Just Festival, with its annual array of theatre, talks, music, dance and exhibitions.
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The Wee Review

2018 Just Festival | The Wee Review

Just Festival
At a time when so many people are worrying over the future and anxious about the lack of care they see around them, the annual socially-conscious Just Festival is more welcome than ever. learn more

2019 Just Festival Programme

Just Festival 2019

‘transitions’

The Just Festival Board chose the theme ‘Transitions’ for the 2019 festival. It engaged new and returning audiences in reflecting on vital social justice issues. learn more

Just Festival 2019

2019 Just Festival Report

Just Report 2019

Festival Annual Report

In addition to the annual summer programme dedicated to the theme of ‘Transitions’, Just delivered a number of community projects aimed at increasing volunteering and skills improvement opportunities as well as improving access to arts and culture to isolated communities. learn more

2018 Just Festival Programme

Just Festival 2018

‘OUTSIDE IN’

The 2018 Just Festival Programme ‘OutsideIn’ offered a wonderful mix of music, theatre, poetry and storytelling created and performed by international and local companies. learn more

Just Festival 2018

2018 Just Festival Report

The Just Festival Board chose the theme OutsideIn for the 2018 festival. It engaged new and returning audiences in reflecting on vital social justice issues. learn more

Just Festival 2017

Video – 2017 Just Festival

Against the Current learn more

Just Festival 2017

2017 Just Festival Programme

Just Festival 2017‘Against the current’

2017 edition of Just Festival was held under the theme #AgainstTheCurrent. We hosted conversations, talks and performing arts events that present people, movements and ideas that challenge(d) the status quo. learn more

Just Festival 2017

2017 Just Festival Report

Just Festival 2017

Festival annual report

The 2017 Just Festival was held under the theme ‘Against the Current’. We hosted 9 conversations, 6 talks and 40 performing arts events that presented people, movements and ideas that challenged the status quo. learn more

Just Festival Feedback 2016

Video – 2016 Just Festival Audience Feedback

Audience members at the Just Festival 2016 give their feedback about shows and events.

Just Festival 2016

2016 Just Festival Programme

‘from the edge’

With the 2016 programme, Just Festival offered safe spaces for dialogue and creative exchange between invited experts, practitioners, community-based organisations, socially conscious performing arts groups and the general public. learn more

Just Festival 2016

2016 Just Festival Report

Just Festival 2016

Festival annual report

In 2016 Just Festival’s events and exhibitions were curated under the theme ‘From the Edge’. learn more

Just Festival 2015

Video – Just Festival 2015 Photos

Images from the 2015 Just Festival

Just Festival 2015

Video – Just Festival 2015

With though provoking conversations, talks films and exhibitions. learn more

Press Release – Slaves in Scotland

Just Festival

‘But we have no slaves in Scotland…,’ states a Scottish law report from 1687. And yet, it was not made illegal to own a slave in Scotland until 1788. Newspapers in Edinburgh and Glasgow used to run adverts for slaves, at various prices, or offer rewards for escaped slaves. learn more

Just Festival 2014

Video – Just Festival 2014

An Introduction to the 2014 Just Festival learn more

Just Festival 2013

Video – Just Festival 2013

3 Weeks in 3 minutes
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