It’s almost time to start the countdown for Edinburgh in August
◆ The city’s cultural offering has shown remarkable resilience
Spring is finally in the air in Edinburgh, but my thoughts have already started turning to summer in the city.
The Edinburgh International Festival’s (EIF) annual launch is the first big moment in a rolling programme of announcements, which will shape the city’s month-long cultural feast in August.
The EIF line-up is the result of months – and in some cases years – of planning and programming behind the scenes. But although its programme will feature more than 160 performances and events, they only actually represent a fraction of the cultural treats which will end up on offer within a few intense, but thrilling few weeks.
Many of Edinburgh's festival devotees will have been closely inspecting the EIF’S programme since its big reveal.
Although the 77-year-event has a fiercely loyal audience who snap up their tickets at the earliest opportunity, it will be some months before all the pieces of the city’s cultural jigsaw can be laid out.
Several flurries of Fringe show announcements are expected before its official programme launch in June, the same month the book festival will reveal the inaugural line-up for its new home at the former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary complex. Also competing for attention will be the revived Edinburgh International Film Festival, which is likely to announce its line-up even later.
All this makes trying to plan ahead for the month of August a fun, but fiendishly difficult, task.
The balancing act of being organised without being over-committed seems to get harder every year, particularly for those keen to both catch the next big thing and avoid being struck down by festival FOMO (fear of missing out) due to an over-crowded schedule.
I had given up counting the number of shows to choose from when I got to 4,000 in the past couple of years.
And while it has not been plain sailing for anyone recently, the scale and quality of work on offer these past two summers has been not only inspirational, but has underlined the resilience of the city’s cultural offering.
And now it’s time to start the countdown all over again. It all can’t come quickly enough.