Tour Guide Apologizes For Leading Silent Disco Around Homeless Man in Edinburgh

The owner of a tour company in Edinburgh apologized and said he felt “embarrassed” after a video showing him leading a silent disco around a homeless man in the city’s Grassmarket area went viral in late August, sparking anger.

Angus Duncan said he captured the video about a year earlier as he was walking home from work, but the footage only caught attention when he tweeted it at the end of August 2019, asking the disco group to identify themselves.

The video shows the group, led by a tour guide in orange, dancing in a circle as a homeless man shakes a cup used to collect spare change. Duncan told Storyful that when he stopped filming, he walked into the middle of the group to address their behavior. “They seemed to be bemused by this, rather than anything else,” said Duncan.

“It was a pretty sickening display of complete contempt for a vulnerable member of society,” said Duncan. “The lack of self-awareness was astonishing.”

David Naylor, the owner of the Edinburgh silent disco company tour group Guru Dudu, identified himself to the Edinburgh Evening News as the man wearing bright orange in the video and stated he was “embarrassed” by what occurred, and said he hadn’t spotted the man. “It was a mistake and I definitely apologize,” Naylor said, according to the Edinburgh News. Credit: Angus Duncan via Storyful