#the edinburgh international festival
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On 24th August 1947 the first Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) of Music and Drama opened.
Rudolf Bing, an Austrian impresario who had fled Nazi Germany, wanted to create an international festival in the UK. After various searches Edinburgh was proposed by Henry Harvey Wood of the British Council, supported by both Sir John Falconer, the city’s Lord Provost, and Lady Rosebery. In 1945 a festival committee was formed which decided that 1947 would be the earliest possible date - and that the Festival would be a chance for Edinburgh to create a new post-war identity as ‘the cultural resort of Europe’.
The first Edinburgh International Festival began on 24 August 1947, with an aim to ‘provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit’ by bringing people and artists together from around the world. One of the highlights of the first year’s programme was the reuniting of conductor Bruno Walter with the Vienna Philharmonic and Walter’s comments set the seal on the future –
‘What you have done in Edinburgh is one of the most magnificent experiences since the war. Here human relations have been renewed.’
The “Festival” as it simply known in Edinburgh is now the world’s biggest arts festival, in over 300 venues, thousands of shows from around the world entertain people from, well around the world too, it is said the population of my hometown more than doubles at Festival time.
It’s not all comedy, and theatre, there are now many aspects to the festival, first you have the Edinburgh International Festival of Music and Drama, that’s the one that started on this day 73 years ago, it’s the professionals who get paid for being on stage in what ever guise they don, the thing was at the beginning it was invite only, and only eight companies were invited, so some set up their own shows, hoping to not just entertain, but hopefully earn a few quid in the process, this took the name The Fringe, it was been so successful it soon became bigger than the “Official” Festival and over the years most acts just wanted to be in Edinburgh, any chance of earning a crust went out the window, many performers save up all year just to come to Edinburgh and appear, sometimes in front of only a handful of people, if you’re lucky!
There was no real organisation during the first years of The Fringe, it wasn’t until 1951 when the sign of any communal activity occurred in 1951 when Edinburgh University students opened a drop-in centre at 25 Haddington Place. This was used by many Fringe performers as it provided cheap food and a bed for the night, oh to be able to find a cheap bed nowadays!
It was 1954 before Fringe groups held their first meeting to discuss the possibility of working together. “We are cutting each other’s throats” was a quote from one of the groups. It was the logistics, the non-performance aspects, that they saw as a problem and the establishment of a joint box office and publicity mechanism were given high priority. The first Fringe programme was produced in this year by C. J. Cousland, an Edinburgh printer, as seen in the second pic. The Fringe now outstrips the EIF by an insurmountable amount, but as I said earlier most shows struggle to make a profit.
Eventually, the Festival Fringe Society was set up in 1959. A constitution was drawn up, stating that elected officers should oversee the running of a box office, produce a programme brochure that would include every event that was not on the International Festival, and run a club where performers could meet, eat, drink until late, and generally feel involved.
This post is, like the Fringe, getting to large, I like to keep them short so having covered the main two, here is a quick run through of the rest of the Festival, as we know it now.
Pipes and dancing took place on the Castle Esplanade, and in Princes Street Gardens, from 1947, the year of the first International Festival. It was eventually superseded by The Edinburgh Military Tattoo in 1950. Under the direction of Brigadier Alasdair Maclean, there were eight items in the first programme. There were no stands in that first year, the audience watching from the side of the Esplanade. Stands were erected from the following year, growing to its current size when it houses an audience of around 9,000.
The Edinburgh Art Festival is a fixture in the International Festival programme, the early 1950s arguably being the golden period. However, funds were withdrawn in 1973 and the visual arts were relegated to “associates”, i.e. linked to but not directly part of the International Festival. In more recent years the associate tag gradually disappeared and it began to rely on The Fringe programme to provide external advertising of its wares.Most Edinburgh folk will remember the Ingenious Campbell soup cladding on the pillars of the Scottish Royal Academy for the Andy Warhol exhibition in 2007, it’s certainly my most memorable memory of the Arts Festival.
The Jazz & Blues Festival is a 10 day festival, spread over a dozen venues, which spans late July and early August. It began in August 1979 at the Adelphi Ballroom, Abbeyhill, which had a capacity of 500, and it was held over a single weekend. Like all the festivals it has grown over the years and for a short time they had “Jazz on a Summer’s Day” which attracted a bigger crowd than any other single jazz event in the UK, it was held in Princes Street Gardens, but the commercial folk that run things in Edinburgh basically fucked things up by allowing a Spiegeltent event to take over the space in the gardens in 2010 and that aspect of it has not returned since, which is a shame.
Edinburgh International Book Festival was first held in 1983 and was an instant success with 120 authors attending, including John Updike and Anthony Burgess. The 17 day festival is now sited in Charlotte Square Gardens, at the western end of George Street, converting it into a tented village for the duration. The 2016 festival, with an attendance of circa 230,000, boasted of appearances by over 800 authors, poets, illustrators, journalists and politicians from 55 countries.
The pics speak for themselves, except the last one, it’s me with a guy called Masai Graham, he is from Birmingham and throughout the year is a carer, but he is also a great fast paced comedian, and a master of the pun, He has been in the top ten jokes several times through the years, and this year won for the second time with the joke;
“I tried to steal spaghetti from the shop, but the female guard saw me and I couldn’t get pasta”
In 2016 his winning joke was;
“My dad suggested I register for a donor card – he’s a man after my own heart.”
In 2015 he came 4th with;
What’s the difference between a hippo and a Zippo? One is really heavy, the other is a little lighter.
You still have time to catch Masai in Dropkick Murphy’s on Merchant Street, check the programme here
https://www.freefestival.co.uk/venue.aspx?VenueID=188
#Scotland#scottish#the edinburgh international festival#edinburgh festival fringe#edinburgh book festival#edinburgh film festival
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Medicine rehearsals in Edinburgh
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Louise Brealey - Photoshoot for World Premiere of Chuck Chuck Baby, Edinburgh International Film Festival (via Getty Images)
#Louise Brealey#Chuck Chuck Baby#Edinburgh International Film Festival#Getty Images#Annabel Scholey#Sherlock Cast
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GHOSTS SEASON 4 TRAILER REVEAL
EDIT: after seeing the trailer that leaked today, I think I’ve definitelyyy misremembered things, either by missing key details or misremembering lines said. So please please take these with a grain of salt! I wrote this a full day after seeing the (very short) teaser so there will be stuff i missed!
As you all probably know by now, at the Edin Tv Festival today it was announced during a talk that Ghosts season 4 was being released in September, and the crowd was shown the exclusive first reveal of the trailer.
Luckily, I was in that crowd! So here’s some of the things I remember for it.
spoilers (potentially) below!
none of these are in order btw, just shots that I remember happening :)
The trailer was over a rather chaotic piece of classical music - iirc it was In the Hall of the Mountain King
There is a shot of the plague ghosts running up a large staircase (presumably) in Button House. There is a substance splattered over the walls that looks like a very dark red - potentially blood?
Theres a shot of Mary turning around to face something off camera. The shot is highly saturated (but that may just be normal ghosts colour correcting) and she is standing in an empty grassy field
We see Annie (the ghost who had left before Alison arrived) leaning against a wooden panelled wall, looking worried (?) she is wearing her same maid outfit that we last saw her in
There is a shot of Thomas walking staggering down a small staircase in Button House. There is an effect which means he leaves a sort of “trail” behind him - like in movies when a character takes drugs ( i believe it’s called an echo motion effect). He looks very distressed/shocked and his voice is being played over him walking, also echoing. I can’t remember what he said, but I remember thinking “omg that’s from his death scene!” It’s been a while since i’ve seen the show but if I remembered the quote correctly Thomas may have been having a flashback? EDIT: Someone who was also there said that the voice was actually Alisons voice saying “kiss me thomas”, so maybe it wasn’t a flashback? All the shots were very quick so may memory may not be 100% accurate?
we see Robin outside holding a stone spear. Behind him there are two other cavemen, also holding stone age weapons. They are looking at something off camera - potentially they are going to hunt? We are definitely getting more backstory for Robin :)
halfway through the trailer we cut to Julian sitting on a chair next to his chess board. He says something along the lines of “are you done yet - what, there’s more?!”
we see a shot of Barclay - he’s looking cross and he says “not again!”
the captain uses his stick as a gun again and makes little ‘pew pew’ noises
i’ll add more if I remember anything else but that’s what stood out for me! Looks like we’re getting a very very interesting season!! My initial interpretation was that the ghosts seemed to be coming back to life but my friend (and indeed others at the event i talked to) all seemed to think that was hogwash so who knows!
i’m also making a post summarising some points of interest from the talk itself so check my page for that :)
#Ghosts season 4#bbc ghosts#robin bbc ghosts#thomas thorne#mary bbc ghosts#the plague ghosts bbc ghosts#bbc ghosts spoilers#Ghosts#annie bbc ghosts#Edinburgh international tv festival#Ghosts masterclass#the captain bbc ghosts
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Away We Go (2009, Sam Mendes)
29/02/2024
Away We Go is a 2009 film directed by Sam Mendes, written by the well-known author duo Dave Eggers-Vendela Vida, in their first film experience.
It is the story of two thirty-year-olds, played by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, who, faced with the imminent, unplanned arrival of their first child, undertake a journey across the United States, and beyond, in search of the ideal place where put down roots and raise the family.
The film's soundtrack is cured by British singer-songwriter Alexi Murdoch and consists largely of his songs.
Presented at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the film was distributed in US cinemas by Focus Features starting from 5 June 2009, in the first weekend in limited form in 4 theatres.
Positive reviews include those from Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times), David Denby (The New Yorker) and Peter Travers (Rolling Stone). Among the negatives are those of Richard Corliss (Time), A. O. Scott (The New York Times), Dennis Harvey (Variety) and Ann Hornaday (The Washington Post).
#away we go#film#2009#sam mendes#dave eggers#Vendela Vida#john krasinski#maya rudolph#Alexi Murdoch#bob dylan#what is life#george harrison#the stranglers#the velvet underground#Edinburgh International Film Festival#focus features#roger ebert#chicago sun times#the new yorker#Peter Travers#Rolling Stone#Richard Corliss#time#A. O. Scott#the new york times#variety#the washington post#romantic comedy#Road movie#comedy drama
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I know I don't post much on Tumblr anymore, but that doesn't mean that my poems aren't being written and performed everywhere and anywhere. On Friday night I competed in a poetry slam in Edinburgh, my home city - the competition was fierce, the writing and performances were top notch and it really could have been anyone's to win... and I only went and won!
This means I'll be competing against 11 other poets from all across Scotland in the grand slam final as part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival at the end of August. I honestly cannot wait!
#poetry#slampoetry#writerscreed#spilledink#poetsoftumblr#me#gpoy#purejoy#loud poets#edinburgh international book festival
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Neil Gaiman, Edinburgh International Book Festival
#<3#throwback#neil gaiman#writer#muse#visionary#edinburgh international festival#american gods#my edit
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Just went to see Sibelius and Mahler conducted by Klaus Mäkelä.
Pros and cons :
Pros :
Sibelius
Mäkelä's cute dishevelled hair and finger rubbing gestures
Cons :
Mahler
The lighting on stage (Edinburgh Usher Hall) was horrendous! The conductor and singer were lit totally top down. It's ok for the conductor but the singer?? Pretty girl's resting smiling face looked like a grimace of pain... The only brightly lit feature was the triangle of her nose!
The lyrics. They were bonkers. It was an ad for heaven. Like hurry up and die, we have "asparagus, beans, whatever you want!" Also "venison or hare? It runs at you down the road!"
Like no girl thanks I don't want roadkill...
"Oh but on holidays fish swims up the rivers" damn was this written during a famine?
#still love sibelius#please next time stick to him#mahler#sibelius#klaus Mäkelä#eif#edinburgh international festival
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Edinburgh International Film Festival goes into administration
Edinburgh International Film Festival goes into administration
Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Filmhouse Cinema and Café Bar and Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen have, sadly, gone into administration, victim to escalating costs and uncertainty over future funding.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival is the world’s oldest continually running festival, and the announcement comes after it recently celebrated its 75th anniversary. 102 staff have…
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Edinburgh International Festival Review: Day 18
The day started at the Amplify Festival event by the Marketing Society at Assembly where the main speaker was Frank Cottrell Boyce. He of children’s book writing, the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony and The Queen x Paddington fame. He gave a talk about humour and its values that was interesting, seemingly pretty spontaneous, totally self effacing and utterly charming. His best line, being a…
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#Alvin Ailey#Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater of New York review#Edinburgh#edinburgh fringe#edinburgh international festival#Festival Theatre Edinburgh#music#Revelations review#theatre
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Julia Bullock’s recent Edinburgh International Festival recital at The Queen's Hall with pianist Bretton Brown was broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Lunchtime Concert. The program includes Connie Converse’s “One By One,” which Bullock performs on her debut solo album, Walking in the Dark; works by Schubert, Wolf, Weill, Berio, and Rossini; and music by Lovie Austin, Billie Holiday, and Nina Simone. You can hear it here.
#julia bullock#edinburgh international festival#bbc radio 3#classical music#connie converse#walking in the dark#nonesuch#nonesuch records
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Domhnall starring in the wondeful play Medicine, at Edinburgh International Festival 2021
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Japanese Films at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2023
The Edinburgh International Film Festival takes place from the 18th to the 23rd of August and there is one Japanese film there – courtesy of Anime Limited – and an international co-production between Japan and America.
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