Sketchy Beats Cafe

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Sketchy Beats Cafe

Non-profit community arts space,
Pay-as-you-feel practice room downstairs. Opening hours depend on bookings! BYOB, donation-based.
(201)

Send us a message or book online:
https://sites.google.com/view/sketchy-beats/home Sketchy Beats Café is a not-for-profit arts café and event space on Great Junction Street, Leith. The space is an open platform for creatives of any kind to use and share their ideas with the public. The concept started off as an experimental life drawing event, incorporating a live musician, a dancer, a n**e model

and a live DJ set. This took place once a month in the basement of Yellow Bench on Leith Walk. As this event gained popularity, money was raised through crowdfunding to create a community space where creative events like this could happen every night. Since the café opened in October 2015, members of the local community have organized all kind of events in the café: live hip-hop nights, art exhibitions, poetry slams, live music jams, climate change discussions, life drawing sessions, craft fairs and charity fundraiser gigs, to name a few. The space is designed to be affordable and accessible to everyone - people who have never organized events before, musicians who have never played outside their own bedroom, artists who have never exhibited before. The café aims to be a space where creativity brings the community together, without money being an obstacle. The space is available for anyone in the community to organize their own events, parties and workshops. If you are interested in using the space, just message the Sketchy Beats Café page with your idea and a suggested date and time!

*Update*

We now have a pay-as-you-feel practice / live stream room downstairs! Max 6 people to allow for adequate space between band members. To book the room, message the page :)

12/01/2025

For my first booking of 2025, I will be back at Sketchy Beats Cafe for 4th Dimension Events presents Feel The Sketchy Beats. Set prep is underway and I'll be playing some high energy trance bangers 🎶🎶🎧🎧🔥🔥🔥
This is a quirky wee intimate venue that holds limited numbers so secure your tickets using the link https://ra.co/events/2053242

10/01/2025

07/01/2025

Tomorrow!

Wednesday 8th January; the glorious return of the one and only Sad Song Club ©️

Featuring:

⚫️ Sadness
⚫️ Woe
⚫️ Glum Chums

Sign-up from 7pm at the world famous Arts Café in Leith

BYOB

We ask everyone to make a donation to the venue in lieue of bar sales (there is no bar)

Let's get 2025 started all wrong! 🥳

https://facebook.com/events/s/sad-song-club-open-mic-sketchy/1322577465857005/

14/12/2024

12/12/2024

Come witness us as we blend the soulful sounds of American country followed by the high-energy beats of drum n bass

10/12/2024

If you're free tonight, go see Beatrice Blanco playing accordion with her new band!

09/12/2024

Come to discover the lovely faces and captivating voices of Michele and Valeria!

Tomorrow at 7pm, St Vincent's Chapel, for our first performance.

Tickets in the event page!

08/12/2024

Sketchy Beats Art Collective
Free art classes for all
Amount requested: £5000

We would like to start offering regular art classes, free of charge, for anyone in the community to attend. These will be fully tutored by local artists and all materials will be provided.

This ties in with the theme because people of all ages and all walks of life will unite through artistic expression. Art is a universal language that crosses all barriers, uniting people of different ethnicities, faiths, genders and economic backgrounds.

The grant money will be used to pay local artists to teach the lessons, to buy art supplies and to go towards venue costs. A small amount will also go towards promoting the classes.

The project will benefit anyone interested in exploring their creativity, learning a new skill, looking for a new hobby or meeting new people. There are many benefits to learning and creating art – channelling your thoughts and emotions into creativity has been shown to improve your mental health. We think this would be of huge benefit to many people in the local community.

Let’s unite Leith by learning art!

Online voting will open on 20th January 🤞

Twenty-four brilliant Leith Uniting projects are listed below (in random order). They are all applying to £eithChooses, and need Leithers’ votes if they are to get funding. Have a look here a…

Address

208 Great Junction Street
Edinburgh
EH65LW

Website

https://sites.google.com/view/sketchy-beats/home

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Videos

Open jams on the Sketchy Beats Stage // Kelburn Garden Party 2024 Captured by @craft.punk.cookie / @naomisfunhouse #sketchybeats #jam #kelburn #femalevocalists

When @butterbeys invited every drummer in the audience to join them up on stage... Sketchy Beats Stage // Kelburn Garden Party 2024 📽 @steviebeegoodmusic #butter #jam #scottishfestival #drummer #kelburn #kelburncastle #newmusic #sketchybeats

This was such a beautiful jam - more and more vocalists kept joining in and sitting together on the edge of the stage. Kelburn, thank you for having us! #sketchybeats #openjam #kelburn #kelburngardenparty #femalerapper #femalevocalist

@daraplaysharp put on an amazing show at @legendsedinburgh this weekend! You can catch the full band on the @sketchybeats stage at @kelburnparties next week - Friday at 5pm 🌳 #harp #edinburgh #kelburn #sketchybeats

Fish and the Kelpies performing on our stage at @kelburnparties last year! You can catch them again this year, Sunday at 4pm 🐠🐎 #kelburn #sketchybeats #fishandthekelpies

Just over two weeks until @kelburnparties! You'll find the Sketchy Beats stage running from 12-9pm each day, by the Monument, in the @neverendingglen 🌳 Thanks to @chattypatter for putting this reel together 👌 #scottishfestival #scottishcastle #festivalseason #music #jam #localartist #supportlocal

Thanks @elfwasted for capturing some moments from last week's jam 🎷 #jamsession #sketchybeats #leith #artspace

Here's a clip of Finnish fingerpicking guitarist Kadonnut Manner, performing at Sketchy Beats two nights ago... @kadonnutmanner kadonnutmanner.bandcamp.com/ www.kadonnutmanner.fi #fingerpicking #fingerpickingguitar #finland #acoustic #acousticguitar #sketchybeats #leith #edinburgh

@kryss_talmeth in the @sketchybeats tent last year at @kelburnparties - you can catch them again this year, headlining our stage on the Friday! Find us next to the Monument, in the @neverendingglen... #festivalseason #scottishfestival #kelburn #alternativerock #scottishband

Jamming by a sketchy stream... @hatcheyb @rastaviking420 @the_rhubarb_goblin #jam #leith #edinburgh #saxophone #guitar #bass #waterofleith #sketchybeats

Acoustic Jam led by Laura Silverstone @laurasilverstonemusic #acoustic #guitar #cajon #saxophone #jamsession #leith #edinburgh

That time Lewis Capaldi played in our basement... Filmed by Louise Duffy #lewiscapaldi #acoustic #leith #sketchybeats #capaldi

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Our Story

Sketchy Beats Cafe is a not-for-profit arts cafe on Great Junction Street, Leith. The space is an open platform for creatives of any kind to use and share their ideas with the public. The concept started off as an experimental life drawing event, incorporating a live musician, a dancer, a n**e model and a live DJ set. This took place once a month in the basement of Yellow Bench, a Polish Bistro on Leith Walk. As this event gained popularity, we raised the money through crowdfunding to create a community space where creative events like this could happen every night. Since the cafe opened in October 2015, members of the local community have organized all kind of events in the cafe: live hip-hop nights, art exhibitions, poetry slams, live music jams, DJ showcases, climate change discussions, life drawing sessions, craft fairs, charity fundraisers, birthday parties and much more. The space is designed to be affordable and accessible to everyone - people who have never organized events before, musicians who have never played outside their own bedroom, artists who have never exhibited before. The cafe aims to be a space where creativity brings the community together, without money being an obstacle. The space is available for anyone to organize their own events, parties and workshops, from the early evening into the small hours. If you are interested in using the space, just message the Sketchy Beats Cafe page with your idea and a suggested date and time.