Edinburgh Festival drops Russian acts from 75th anniversary programme
Russian acts have been dropped from the line-up of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), organisers have revealed.
The plug was pulled on artists and performers who were due to appear at the event earlier this year as speculation mounted about an impending invasion of Ukraine.
Decisions were taken before the festival severed its links with Russian conductor Valery Gergiev. At the time, the EIF said the action was taken in sympathy with, and support of, the people of Ukrainian ca pi talky iv, at win city of Edinburgh.
This year's festival will feature a major strand of shows tackling issues around refugees, identity and migration that were already planned to be in the 75th-anniversary programme of the event.
Created in collaboration with the Scottish Refugee Council, the “Refuge” season of theatre, dance, visual art, film and talks has been inspired by the legacy of Austrian born Rudolf Bing, one of the festival’s co-founders, who was a refugee himself.
Festival director Fergus Linehan confirmed decisions were made on the involvement of Russian performers before the programme deadline, suggesting “logistical” difficulties had been identified well before the outbreak of war.
Mr Linehan said: “I don’t want to say who they were because they never made it into the final programme.
"It wasn’t quite at the last minute, but decisions were made before it got really nasty in Ukraine.
“It wasn’t a case of ‘tut tut, we’re going to cancel people’. It’s not about being anti-russian, it’s about being anti this administration.”