Edinburgh Festival to go ahead this year with outdoor venues
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The Edinburgh International Festival will go ahead this year as an in-person event, with performances moving outside to conform with coronavirus safety measures.
Organisers have drawn up a plan for the iconic arts festival to run between 7 and 29 August in the Scottish capital.
A number of covered stages will be set up across the city, including in Edinburgh Park and the University of Edinburgh’s Old College Quad. The event will also employ a range of safety measures, including shorter performances and no intervals.
Social distancing and enhanced cleaning is expected to be in place, while the festival will use digital-only tickets.
In addition to live events, a number of performances will be livestreamed online free of charge.
“We are hugely grateful to the artists who have agreed to come on this journey with us, the stakeholders, donors, and sponsors who have stood by us through a tough year and our audiences who have cheered us along throughout,” said festival director Fergus Linehan. “We look forward to sharing full details of the programme in early June.”
The move will come as a major boost after the festivals were cancelled last year due to the pandemic. It was the first time they have been called off since they began in 1947.
The city plays host to the Edinburgh Art Festival, the Festival Fringe, Book Festival, International Festival and Military Tattoo.
The cultural jamboree is the world’s largest arts festival and the world’s second largest cultural event after the Olympics.
More than 5,000 individual events take place each summer, drawing audiences of 4.4m and more than 25,000 artists, writers and performers from 70 countries.
Last month the government unveiled a £1m investment in the festivals to help support its shift to virtual performances.
The 11 festivals in the portfolio will be able to apply for a share of a £500,000 fund to support virtual solutions to producing events, combining live performances with digital elements.
A further £500,000 will be used to create a new digital platform to help national and international buyers and producers search for talent and content from the festivals’ programmes.
Full details of this year’s programme will be announced on 2 June. Priority booking for International Festival members opens on 1 June before general booking opens on 11 June.