Edinburgh International Festival: What you need to know
August is festival month in Edinburgh, with hundreds of thousands of locals and visitors enjoying arts events and performances across Scotland’s capital. First out of the blocks with the unveiling of its programme is usually the city’s flagship event, the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), and so it has proved again this year.
WHAT IS IT?
First held in 1947 and the brainchild of Austrian-born impresario Sir Rudolf Bing, also the festival’s first director, the EIF is a curated event to which the world’s best and most exciting practitioners of music, theatre, opera and dance are invited. Over the decades, the EIF has hosted performances by some of the giants of the arts and in recent times it had expanded in scope to include popular music – legendary Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale played last year
– as well as talks and huge public events in which the public are invited to participate.
The current boss of the EIF is world-famous violinist Nicola Benedetti, the first Scottishborn director – and the first woman to hold the position.
WHEN IS IT ON?
This year’s festival runs from August 2 until August 25 and forms the centrepiece of the massive annual undertaking which is the Edinburgh Festival – the name given to the event which also includes Edinburgh’s book and film festivals and, of course, the Edinburgh Fringe.
WHO SHOULD I BE MOST EXCITED ABOUT?
The name which will have fans of TV spy drama Slow Horses salivating is Borders lad-turned-A lister Jack Lowden.
Having started his theatrical career in the 2010 revival of Gregory Burke’s Black Watch, a smash hit for the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) when it premiered in 2006, Lowden returns to the stage to star in The Fifth Step, a new drama by award-winning playwright David Ireland (Royal Lyceum Theatre, August 21-25).
Fans of Bob Dylan who wish they could have witnessed American singersongwriter Cat Power recreate his iconic 1966 Manchester Free Trade Hall show song by song will have the opportunity when she performs Cat Power Sings Dylan 66 at the Playhouse (August 18). Elsewhere the much-loved beanbag concerts return – you enjoy a performance by one of the world’s top orchestras from the comfort of a beanbag and there’s a mass participation opening event for 10,000 people planned for outside the Scottish Parliament.
WHAT ELSE IS ON?
Writer Amy Liptrot’s bestselling, Orkneyset memoir The Outrun is adapted for the stage in a world premiere to be directed by former NTS head Vicky Featherstone. At the National Museum of Scotland, you’ll find Scottish Opera mounting Oedipus Rex, Igor Stravinsky’s 1927 collaboration with the equally innovative Jean Cocteau. There are performances by several of our other national companies including NTS, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Scottish Ballet.
And elsewhere renowned Brazilian dance company Grupo Corpo performs to the music of legendary musician Gilberto Gil, the Komische Oper Berlin presents Mozart’s much-loved opera The Marriage Of Figaro, and you can hear piano superstar Yuja Wang play (programme to be announced).
WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?
Speaking at the launch event for this year’s EIF programme, Ms Benedetti described Edinburgh as “the true festival city”, stressed the importance of mass gatherings for social cohesion and community spirit, and made an impassioned claim for the role of culture in that process.
“A festival of arts can alter society and change people’s lives,” she said. Quoting the phrase “out of the me and into the we” as citing as an influence South Korean philosopher Han Byung-Chul’s book The Disappearance Of Rituals, she also promised “a deeper dedication to our audience” as the EIF “inaugurates new and reimagined rituals, honouring tradition and innovation”.
And the themes? They’re big. Life, death, love, sex, and seduction.
HOW DO I GET TICKETS AND HOW MUCH DO THEY COST?
Tickets go on sale on March 21, with priority booking for EIF members. Membership starts at £60. Ticket prices for individual shows start from around £13.50. However, the £10 scheme which offers limited tickets for that price on selected shows will this year be expanded to cover all EIF performances. There are also free tickets available for some shows for those in the Young Musicians scheme, and the EIF is committed to selling 50% of all tickets for under £30.