Edinburgh International Festival goes digital

Performers will be playing to a virtual audience

The Edinburgh International Festival has announced details of its 2020 programme with shows being broadcast online.

The actual festival was cancelled due to coronavirus.

Instead, organisers have commissioned a number of digital works from Scottish companies and performers.

My Light Shines On, a series of digital works and light installations across Edinburgh, will mark what would have been the opening weekend.

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The festival has joined with Scottish artists and national arts companies to film original performances in venues including the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, the Usher Hall and The Queen's Hall.

They include a personal love letter to Scottish theatre from the National Theatre of Scotland, directed by award-winning film-maker Hope Dickson Leach.

Aidan O'Rourke playing the fiddle

Scottish Opera's modern-day interpretation of Gian Carlo Menotti's The Telephone, starring Soraya Mafi and Jonathan McGovern, was filmed in the bar of the King's Theatre.

Other performances include the Scottish Chamber Orchestra playing Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto with pianist Paul Lewis, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra celebrating Mahler's 160th birthday and a series of films from Scottish Ballet.

The films premiere on Edinburgh International Festival's YouTube channel at 21:30 on Saturday.

The Edinburgh Festival fringe will also show its events virtually.

Key events include the Artist of Colour Meetup, running at Fringe Central for a sixth year.

Birds of Paradise will be hosting a disabled artists networking event.

Breabach is taking part

The Edinburgh International Festival will also feature an outdoor light installation with hundreds of beams of light illuminating festival venues such as the Castle Esplanade, Usher Hall and Edinburgh Festival Theatre.

The installation will be visible across the city and residents are encouraged to view it from their windows or a high vantage point, maintaining social distancing and avoiding crowds.

A sound installation will also broadcast classical concerts - recorded behind closed doors in The Hub - throughout Princes Street Gardens on weekday lunchtimes from 10 to 28 August.

National Theatre of Scotland Ghost Light is expected to be one of the draws to the virtual festival

Fergus Linehan, festival director at Edinburgh International Festival, said: "For the first time since lockdown, orchestras, ballet companies, traditional musicians, theatre ensembles and designers have come together to perform in and light up the venues they love.

"The programme of events that we announce today is not so much a curated season as a reunion - it is time for our artists to make theatre together, to play music together, to sing together, to dance together and to light up the skies together.

"Through these projects, we are providing employment for over 500 Scottish artists, creatives and technical staff."

'Creative spirit'

Scotland's Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: "The loss of Edinburgh's festivals this August will be felt across the world.

"Every year since the Edinburgh International Festival's inception in 1947 the city has heralded the best of international talent, alongside some of the finest performers that Scotland has to offer.

"It's wonderful to see that despite the difficulties the world is facing, the Edinburgh International Festival has harnessed that creative spirit to create a digital programme focusing on Scottish artists, once again bringing them to the global audience."