70th Anniversary will be 2017

The World literally is focussed on Edinburgh

There is a whole range of things – many people come and they try to replicate what happens in Edinburgh – no one really succeeds

Because it is a combination of planning, luck and all sorts of things

The reason for its success is that its genesis was so strong

1947, the end of the second world war – Europe was destroyed, and then this idea of bringing all these peoples together at the highest possible level to celebrate the flowering of the human spirit

To be honest – not that much has changed in terms of the spirit and objective of the festival

It has always been very clearly understood within Scotland as an international event

It has always been given a great degree of independence

Always had this ambition to do things at the very highest level

It is the perfect festival city- an incredibly beautiful place to visit

Half a million people and it expands to a million

The whole city is wrapped up in this great celebration

And around the International Festival all these other festivals grew up

They now are all part of what makes Edinburgh so exciting

Edinburgh is chaotic at that time of year, in the nicest possible way

You try walking down the Royal Mile and it is a living carnival!

That is what people want – more and more they want that sort of experience

This is all of these people from around the World coming together

Questions

1.When was the Edinburgh International Festival founded?

2.What was an idea of the festival’s foundation?

3.Why is Edinburgh the perfect festival venue?

4.How many visitors come to Edinburgh and the Festival?

5.What is the Royal Mile like?

Track Two

It does not help that the licensing laws change and the bars are allowed to stay open as long as they want

There are two sides to a festival – one side is the work and the other side is the celebration

I think that’s what Edinburgh does extraordinarily well

It has seriousness of intent in terms of going to see a performance

And then this amazing celebration at the end of it

You cannot underestimate the good fun of the festival

Combine that also with the military tattoo taking place

All these things happening that just bring in huge numbers of visitors

Great for the city’s economy

It is worth hundreds of millions of Pounds to the city’s economy

One reason it has been so successful is that all of the festivals work closely together

We set up a separate body called ‘Festivals Edinburgh’ – making sure in terms of Cultural Diplomacy, promotion in terms of tourism – are done across all of the festivals

It is wonderful in a sense, because in some other festivals you are expected to do everything

Whereas we all do slightly different things

Together we make a really important offering

You have often been accredited with modern music – are you bringing in modern acts

Our line with classical music is very strong – we have not diminished that in any way

Questions

1.What are the two sides to a festival?

2.What cannot be underestimated?

3.What is the festival great for?

4.What was set up to coordinate all the festivals in Edinburgh?

5.What is still very strong with the International Festival?