Edinburgh venue The Outhouse wins a Herald Angel award at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

(Report by Rob Adams).

The Outhouse, which is home to the weekly Playtime series of Thursday jazz concerts and hosted Playtime’s first Fringe run this year, has been presenting jazz on the Fringe since 2009 and this year featured American singers Barbara Morrison and Lillian Boutté and Barbadian saxophonist Arturo Tappin as well as shows involving Scottish musicians including singer Alison Affleck and pianist David Patrick.

Its compact and bijou loft space has become a favourite among jazz audiences and is recognised for the quality of its music programme presented in an intimate atmosphere.

Now in their 20th year, the Herald Angels are awarded by Glasgow-based newspaper The Herald for excellence across the range of festivals taking place in Edinburgh each August. The awards are much coveted by performers, companies and event organisers and previous winners with a jazz connection include Edinburgh’s Jazz Bar and international musicians including the Bad Plus and singers Barbara Morrison and Christine Tobin.

Collecting the statuette Kim Finlay, whose family own and run the venue, said: “This is a great surprise because I’m not sure we realised that venues could get awards like this. It’s a real boost to have something we’re doing – and the venue itself - recognised as being of a high quality, especially when you look at the fantastic standard of the other winners this year and over past years.”

Formerly the Bank of Scotland Herald Angels and with recipients of the distinctive Angel statuettes based on all five continents, the awards have a reputation that extends across the world. They were sponsored this year by Heverlee Belgian Beer and Edinburgh Napier University.

The photo shows Kim Finlay of the Outhouse (far right) with her Outhouse crew and (centre) Dr Sandra Cairncross, Dean of Faculty of Engineering, Computing & Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University.

Rob Adams.