Pomegranates Festival 2025 Unveils Masked Dance for Edinburgh

The Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland has unveiled the full programme for the fourth edition of the Pomegranates Festival, set to take place across Edinburgh from Friday 25 to Wednesday 30 April 2025.

The highly anticipated festival, presented in partnership with TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland) and Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, is a vibrant showcase of Scotland’s traditional dance alongside the diverse movement traditions of Scotland’s New Scots and cultural migrant communities. This year’s edition aims to be the most dynamic with a mix of live performances, film screenings, exhibitions, ceilidhs, workshops, and expert-led talks.

Unmasking the 2025 Festival Theme

This year’s festival theme, masks, invites audiences to explore the profound and transformative power of masked dance traditions. From ancient rituals to contemporary interpretations, the festival will delve into the symbolism, beauty, and mystery of masks as they have appeared throughout dance history. This theme will be woven into the entire festival, from exhibitions and performances to workshops and discussions.

**The Bright Fabric of Life credit Mare Tralla**

Opening Night

The festival’s grand opening on 25 April will set the stage with an evening of traditional dance films, followed by a Q&A with featured creatives, including award-winning filmmakers Marlene Millar and Mare Tralla. Millar’s To Begin the Dance Once More (2023) “tells the story of displacement and water crisis reimagined through the mythological world by three climate refugees from Scotland and Egypt,” while Bhairava (2018) was “filmed on location in India which evokes Shiva, the Lord of Dance as both the destroyer of evil driving out terrible deeds and the guardian of time.”

Tralla’s latest work, The Bright Fabric of Life (2024), “tenderly addresses the life-altering injuries sustained by women in labour, told using traditional African dance and music.” Other screenings include Crowned by Flame (2024) on the Chinese Yi ethnic community’s Cigarette Box dance and On Canada Day (2024) by Gurdeep Pandher, “reflecting on Canada’s past through a dance fusion of Punjabi and Celtic traditions.”

A Showstopping Festival Finale

Among the biggest draws of the 2025 programme is the return of hip-hop dance theatre artist, choreographer and dancer Jonzi D as choreographer-in-residence. Building on his powerful contributions to last year’s festival, Jonzi D will collaborate with traditional dance artists based in Scotland to create the masked festival finale, Hidden Faces, premiering on 29 April – International Dance Day.

“Traditional dance is important, including masked dance, because it represents living heritage while celebrating difference. I think we’ve reached a period in society where our differences are being used against us; our differences are being used to keep us separated; our differences are being used as judgmental tools. Manufactured polarisation. But our infinite differences define our identities, and still we have more in common than we have apart. Pomegranates festival celebrates our differences.”

Jonzi D

Festival Highlights

Beyond the showstopping finale, the Pomegranates Festival 2025 boasts a packed programme of premieres, exhibitions, and community-focused events:

The premiere sharing of not for glory – “a skirling new dance-theatre performance of bodies and bagpipes, and rebellious unravelling of traditional dance and music” by Jack Anderson, Charlotte Mclean, and musician Malin Lewis.
The premiere sharing of Sequins – “a new hip-hop dance theatre solo show by Kalubi Mukangela-Jacoby set to the Pomegranates Festival spoken word commission of Sequins of Poems to Dance To by Ian McMillan.”
An evening of poetry, dance, and discussion focusing on Intangible Cultural Heritage and its relationship with Scottish traditional dance.
A captivating new exhibition by artist-in-residence Lorraine Pritchard (3 April–12 May), “an Edinburgh-based mask maker, costume-designer and fashion model, plus the only Scottish artist performing at the Venice Carnival 2025.” Pritchard’s “first solo exhibition, especially curated for the festival, zooms on the relationship between the heritage craft of mask-making and traditional dance and features masks, photographs, films and books, including Lorraine’s new Venetian Carnival masks which ahead of the exhibition will be premiered and modelled by the artist at this year’s Carnevale in Venice 21 February – 4 March.”
A series of walking tours led by dance historians Alena Shmakova and Agnes Ness, “about the role of women in traditional dance past and present, with focus on the role of Mary, Queen of Scots.”
A dance theatre matinee featuring over 50 primary school children performing alongside postgraduate Dance Science and Education students from the University of Edinburgh. The matinee “is the outcome of a unique co-devising method of Socratic Circles, weaving in the children’s ideas, drawings and poems about the wee objects selected by each pupil to represent their diverse heritage.”

A Platform for Traditional Dance Diversity

With a commitment to inclusivity and accessibility, the Pomegranates Festival ensures all events remain free or “pay what you can”. Festival co-curators Wendy Timmons and Iliyana Nedkova highlight the festival’s role in Edinburgh’s rich cultural landscape:

“In 2025 when we celebrate Edinburgh’s 900 years journey from the 12th Century City of David to the 21st City of Diversity, we are very proud to present the fourth edition of Pomegranates – Edinburgh’s festival of diversity in traditional dance, the festival that has already made it to the #ListHot100 as one of the 100 most influential cultural events of the year. Expect a flair of mystery as this year our festival artists will don their dance masks and take on whole new personalities honouring their traditions and our global living heritage.”

Wendy Timmons and Iliyana Nedkova

John Ravenscroft, Head of the Centre for Research in Education, Inclusion and Diversity at the University of Edinburgh, added:

“I am very pleased to continue to forge our strategic academic partnership with the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland which dates back to 2018.”

John Ravenscroft

Join the Celebration

Having spent years teaching dance, I have witnessed firsthand its transformative power. Dance transcends cultural, personal, and social boundaries, forging connections between communities. It is a profound form of self-expression, a catalyst for empathy, and a bridge across divides. Take it from me that The Pomegranates Festival embodies these principles, providing a vibrant space where movement fosters shared experiences and deeper understanding.

As Edinburgh’s leading festival of international traditional dance, Pomegranates 2025 certainly promises a superb six-day journey through global traditions, masked performances, and community-driven storytelling. Why not get involved?

Featured Image: Masked dancers, costume designer Gerry Gapinski and mask designer – Photo credit Greg Macvean:

L/R Chloe Zhong, Gerry Gapinski, Lorraine Pritchard, Lexie Guo, Miya Ma and Tony Chen