A rare chance to catch four distinct and brilliant artists on a single stage under the Big Top.

Kicking things off is Dave Rowntree, drummer of Blur and a genre-crossing tastemaker in his own right. He will open the night with a live set and return on the decks with a series of DJ sets across the evening.

Next up, Cloth – Glasgow twins Rachael and Paul Swinton – bring their signature blend of shadowy textures and minimalist beauty. Their latest album Pink Silence, produced by Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Yard Act), follows their Scottish Album of the Year-nominated Secret Measure, and features the stunning recent single Polaroid.

We welcome Billy Nomates. Fierce, forthright, and politically charged, Tor Maries gives voice to the disillusioned and unheard. With biting lyricism and a no-compromise energy, her sets are electrifying, unfiltered statements of intent.

If there’s one question that informs Tor Maries writing as Billy Nomates more than any other it’s this: whose voice isn’t in the room? A beacon of brutal truth in an industry built on inconsequential bullshit, the Bristol-based singer-songwriter gives voice to the silenced, the disillusioned, the broken-hearted, and the burnt-out, assembling brilliantly biting dispatches from the fringes of a society mired in austerity, inequality and insularity. Or, as Maries puts it, with trademark bluntness, “There’s too much music in the world already, so everything I make has to count.”

Headlining the night is Hamish Hawk, fresh from the release of his most personal and critically acclaimed album yet, A Firmer Hand. Reflective, theatrical, and brutally honest, Hawk continues a golden run that began with 2021’s Heavy Elevator and 2023’s Angel Numbers.

“Writing this album, I opened up my closet, and a skeleton came out.” In a café just around the corner from his Edinburgh flat, Hamish Hawk is contemplating his extraordinary new record, A Firmer Hand. “The thing that links all of the songs is a sense of the unsaid, whether out of guilt, shame, repression, embarrassment, coyness, whatever it might have been. I realised: I am going to say these things, and not all of them are going to make me look good. The album made so many demands, and I just gave myself over to it.” A Firmer Hand is the third in a run of superlative Hamish Hawk albums which began in 2021 with Heavy Elevator, and continued last year with Angel Numbers. Hawk has been making music with serious intent since 2014, when he self-released Aznavour as Hamish James Hawk. Championed early on by King Creosote and Idlewild, the following year he recorded the 10-inch Mull EP before forming Hamish Hawk & The New Outfit, a unit which morphed into his current band.

This is a standing event.

A limited number of seats are available to reserve by selecting the Accessible Platform ticket.

The Big Top venue is wheelchair accessible. If you require further information on accessibility please visit our Accessibility Guide or contact info@fringebythesea.com.

All ages are welcome. Under 16s must be accompanied by an over 18.