Festival lovers will be dancing in the streets as shows held outside
EIF performances to take place in three specially-built pavilions across the capital, writes
THIS year’s Edinburgh International Festival will be an outdoor event, with the bulk of the programme taking place in specially-built bespoke pavilions in three locations in the city.
Confirming that EIF 2021 will go ahead, and run from Saturday August 7 to Sunday August 29, Festival director Fergus Linehan said yesterday: “We want to assure people that we are going ahead with a live programme. Be ready for a Festival in August, albeit not the one that you might normally see.”
Promising a full schedule of events over that three-week period, the programme itself will not be unveiled until the start of June, with public booking opening on June 11.
“There is still a degree of uncertainty around the particulars of performance times and issues like that, but we did think it was important to put a marker down,” said Mr Linehan.
The sites of two of those venues was also announced yesterday: the Old Quad of Edinburgh University and Edinburgh Park, the commercial district on the western approaches to the capital.
Artist impressions of the structures show a concert stage and a canopy protecting the audience from the elements.
The Festival’s executive director Fran Hegyi said: “We are working really closely with the Scottish Government, Edinburgh City Council and public health officials to make sure that we come up with plans that they are comfortable with.
“Obviously no-one has a crystal ball, but we are putting together plans that are with the letter and spirit of the guidance at the moment.”
The main considerations for the shows in the pavilions have been performance length, ventilation, physical distancing and mask wearing. Ms Hegyi said that the Festival was looking at published guidance rather than any notion of vaccination certificates or “Covid passports”.
Ms Hegyi said that maintaining the cultural infrastructure was also part of the Festival’s thinking.
She said: “We are really conscious of the responsibility that the industry has work to do, because that is the workforce that has to come back.
“Part of the thinking in taking events is how many people we can employ to help us do that. Some of the thoughts were not just artistic ones but about our role in having as many people working on the Festival as possible.”
Mr Linehan said that the performances would be mostly by Uk-based artists, many of them Scottish.
“Large ensembles coming in from overseas is not possible, and it is primarily concert-based. Someone arriving to set up and rehearse for a concert requires far less time in the venue than the preparation for a fullscale dance or theatre work in a venue,” he said.
“They will all be outdoors, and with a couple of tiny exceptions, at the three locations. We haven’t confirmation on the third one yet, and there are some other smaller events that won’t involve
that big infrastructure build. The Quad should be very beautiful. Edinburgh Park has great transport links and unlimited parking and we wanted to do something outside of the city centre.”
All events will be ticketed, with allocated places, and there will be provision for people to attend in groups, as a couple or singly.
With concerts limited to 70 minutes duration, some performances will be given twice.
There will be programming throughout the day but no late events, beyond normal public transport availability.
Mr Linehan’s attention has also been
on the Festival’s 75th anniversary, which falls next year.
He said: “Things are getting better at the moment, although there are events that might trip us up.
“But it does feel that we are discussing dates on the roadmap out of this now, instead of the endless hiatus.
“2022 will take on a different emphasis because it is not just the 75th Festival it may be the first time that we are able to have unfettered mass gatherings again.
“There will a huge surge of activity that we have to think about, beyond what we normally do.”
No-one has a crystal ball, but we are putting together plans that are with the letter and spirit of the guidance