Edinburgh Festival will go ahead with pop-up shows in school playing fields

SCHOOL sports fields will be used to host Edinburgh International Festival shows under plans to take the event outdoors.

A pop-up venue will be created at Edinburgh Academy’s junior school for a series of classical music concerts.

The site will replace the Usher Hall, which festival bosses ruled out using this year due to uncertainty over what restrictions on live events will be in place in August.

Work on the venue at the Academy, which has hosted Fringe shows in its theatre in previous years, is expected to get under way on July 12. The shows are due to run from

August 6-29. It is hoped up to three shows a day can be staged at the Academy, running from noon until 9.45pm some days.

The pavilion will be able to accommodate audiences of just 670 based on two metre social distancing, which the Edinburgh Festival has been told to plan for.

The school will house one of three large pavilions. Two other sites have already been confirmed – at Edinburgh Park and Edinburgh University’s Old College Quad.

The Festival’s line-up is due to be unveiled on June 2, with tickets expected to go on sale on June 11.