Every year, thousands of fans look forward to the annual Edinburgh International Festival, a three-week festival that showcases a variety of performing arts within the city.
As the shops get rammed and the luxury Edinburgh hotel gets booked up, the city is in high spirits.
The festival begins usually around the middle of August and continues until the last weekend of the month. The Festival Director, currently Jonathon Mills who is in charge of proceedings, invites a variety of performers in music, dance, opera and theatre from all around the world to perform in a series of venues. As part of the festivities, there are also talks, workshops and exhibitions.
The first festival took place in 1947 following the Second World War. Original founders included Rudolf Bing, Henry Harvey Wood, Sidney Newman and several civic leaders. The aim was to bring back a nationalist spirit and draw communities together after the horrors witnessed during the war. The festival has taken place every single year since then and has only become increasingly popular in recent decades. In 1999, the festival moved to it’s now permanent home, ‘The Hub’, which is close to Edinburgh Castle. Originally built to be used as a church, its iconic Gothic spire makes it the tallest point in the city. This past year, the festival’s focus was upon the Eastern world, transferring these faraway cultures to Western audiences. Artists from all over India, Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea came to depict their traditions and customs through the art form.
Usually, around ten other festivals take place at the same time but together they are all known as simply the Edinburgh Festival. These include the Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world, and the International TV Festival which attracts hundreds of celebrities and well-known faces from all over the world every year. Planning has already started for next year’s celebrations and the Edinburgh Hilton is already taking reservations. If you want to truly capture the spirit of Edinburgh whilst witnessing top class performers from all over the world, be sure to attend this festival.
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