If You Go To One Place…
It has to be Edinburgh, Scotland’s festival capital
TOP PICK: Five Telegrams, Festival Square, August 3 The opening night of the International Festival is one of the most anticipated events of Edinburgh’s busy summer programme.
This year promises to be especially exciting, with a partnership between the Festival, 14-18 NOW and the Proms, who have co-commissioned this work by Scottish composer Anna Meredith and 59 Productions.
The free Standard Life Aberdeen Opening Event for 2018, Five Telegrams, will involve a spectacular digital projection on to the Usher Hall. The work, which also involves students from Edinburgh College of Art, reflects on the end of the First World War using material from the Imperial War Museum.
The EIF’S ever-popular closing event, the Virgin Money Fireworks Concert, means the city’s festival season will end the way it began – in spectacular and colourful style.
More than 400,000 fireworks will be launched from Edinburgh Castle, choreographed to a performance by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Princes Street Gardens, creating one of the biggest fireworks concerts in the world. Buy a ticket for the live concert in the shadow of the castle or pack a picnic blanket and a radio to tune into the show free of charge at one of the city’s viewing spots.