They may be smaller and quieter than they once were, but Scotland’s capital has its summer arts events, and even some visitors, back
The Edinburgh festivals are back – but not as we know them. Last year was the first time since their founding in 1947 that the international festival and its restless, noisy sibling, the fringe, were cancelled. The Edinburgh international book festival, in the meantime, went digital, and found an audience online. This year the book festival’s model is hybrid. It has moved from its former digs in Charlotte Square to the Edinburgh College of Art, from where events with a live audience will be streamed. Though capacity for in-person audiences, socially distanced, is relatively small, a big screen outdoors will relay events to those visiting its “village green”, which will be equipped with a bookshop, cafe – and, it is hoped, an actual festival atmosphere.
The international festival has created a number of outdoor venues – shielded from the rain by temporary structures that bear a passing resemblance to polytunnels – in locations such as Edinburgh University’s Old College Quad. Attempting to mount an international festival in a time of international travel restrictions must be considered a logistical nightmare, but that has opened up the chance for more local events and new kinds of collaboration – such as traditional musician Aidan O’Rourke’s meditation on “Little Ireland”, the part of Edinburgh’s Old Town in which he lives, this past year emptied of its usual roving population of tourists. The project will see O’Rourke performing with Irish musicians, and a film made with fellow Edinburgh-dweller, film-maker Mark Cousins.
