Circus Zine Fest was organised in order to bring the art form of zines to the Highlands. Zines are homemade publications that originated in the 1930s in the US. Zines are often created out of political or artistic movements. For example, in the early 1990s bands such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile created zines as way of spreading their feminist message using a punk rock aesthetic in a visual format which complimented their music. However, there are no set rules on what makes a zine a zine.

Audio Zines is a collaboration between Hester Grant, Freya Grant and Deborah Hedley. Audio Zines was created as a way of creating a collage effect using the medium sounds, spoken world and dance. Hester has created sound pieces to accompany Freya’s spoken word poems featuring Deborah performing a dance using silks. Zines are often inspired by music so Audio Zines is a concept where music is inspired by zines as an artform.

The Zine Fest runs from 12 - 13 June 2021 and will feature a reference library for attendees to view at their own leisure and zines created by publications such as Sticky Fingers Publishing, Toothache Zine, Wish Fulfillment Press and many more. There are several workshops and performance events available to attend. We believed it was important to have a performance element to the zine fest as zines are so inspired by punk culture, fashion and performance art.

This event is presented by Circus Artspace and funded by Creative Scotland.

Image: Hester Grant

Image: Simon Hutchinson