Edinburgh International Festival: When is the Edinburgh International Festival? 13 highlights of Nicola Benedetti's 2024 programme

The Edinburgh International Festival will feature artists from 42 nations

There are more than 160 performances and events to choose from in Nicola Benedetti’s second programme as director of the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), which will run from August 2-25.

Ahead of public bookings opening on March 21, here are 13 highlights of the line-up for the event, which will see more than 2,000 artists from 42 nations takes to stages across the city this August.

Festival Opening Event

Internationaal Theater Amsterdam will be appearing at the Edinburgh International Festival with its adaptation of German playwright's Heinrich von Kleist 1808 tragedy Penthesilea. Picture: Fabian Calis

The festival unveiled plans for an intriguing opening weekend collaboration with whisky brand The Macallan at the start of the year. However, details of what this will actually involve – and where it will unfold – are expected to remain elusive until the summer. Scotland’s history, mythology and landscape, and the evolution of Edinburgh as a city “built on layers”, are expected to provide the inspiration for a ticketed outdoor event with a capacity of more than 10,000.

Carmen, Festival Theatre, August 4-8

Opera-Comique, the celebrated Parisian opera house founded more than 300 years ago, will be staging a new production of the Georges Bizet opera it famously launched in 1875. French opera star Gaëlle Arquez will play the lead role in a production that will be conducted by the company’s music director, Andreas Homoki, and will feature the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

A new stage adaptation of The Outrun, Amy Liptrot's best-selling memoir, will be launched at this year's Edinburgh International Festival.

Scott Silven, The Hub, August 23

The Lanarkshire-born magician, illusionist, theatre-maker and mentalist first made his name with his intimate Fringe shows in an upstairs room of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Edinburgh’s New Town and joined forces with the Traverse Theatre for his interactive online show The Journey. Now based in New York, Silven will be drawing on his childhood memories of Scotland for what is being billed as “an unforgettable performance way beyond a traditional magic show”.

Assembly Hall, Festival Theatre, August 22-24

Canadian dance-theatre company Kidd Pivot’s latest production reunites choreographer and dancer Crystal Pite with playwright Jonathan Young, after their previous show Revisor won an Olivier Award. Assembly Hall, which is billed as a combination of “Arthurian cosplay and emotive contemporary dance”, focuses on a gathering of medieval re-enactors who gather in their dilapidated community hall who wake up ancient forces.

Illusionist, mentalist, and theatre-maker Scott Silven will be appearing at this year's Edinburgh International Festival.

The Fifth Step, Royal Lyceum Theatre, August 21-25

The Slow Horses and The Gold star Jack Lowden was still studying in Glasgow when he landed his first professional acting in the lead role of Cammy in the hit National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) show Black Watch in 2010. His first stage work for six years will see him make his EIF debut in August in The Fifth Step, the latest play from Glasgow-based writer David Ireland, who has wowed Scottish audiences in recent years with Ulster American and Cyprus Avenue.

The Outrun, Churchill Theatre, July 31-August 24

Brazilian dance theatre company Grupo Corpo will be appearing at this year's Edinburgh International Festival. Picture: Jose Luiz Pederneiras

Amy Liptrot’s best-selling memoir recalling her return home to Orkney after a decade in London, to help her recover from alcoholism, has already been adapted into a new feature film starring Saoirse Ronan, which has won acclaim on the international festival circuit. Now the award-winning Scottish stage and screenwriter Stef Smith is to adapt Liptrot’s book, in collaboration with director Vicky Featherstone, a former artistic director with NTS, and Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre.

Grupo Corpo, Edinburgh Playhouse, August 5-7

The celebrated Brazilian dance-theatre company, which was formed almost 50 years ago, will be staging the UK premieres of two works, which draw on their country’s history, culture and spirituality. The Brazilian multi-instrumentalist and singer Gilerto Gil and the rituals of the Afro-Brazilian religion Umbanda will be inspiring the pieces.

Cat Power, Edinburgh Playhouse, August 18

The American singer-songwriter has already released a live album of a song-by-song recreation at London’s Royal Albert Hall of Bob Dylan’s 1966 concert at Manchester Free Hall. Now she will be recreating the show, which featured songs like It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, Desolation Row, Mr Tambourine Man and Like a Rolling Stone, in the Playhouse, where Dylan has famously performed himself.

900 Voices, St Giles’ Cathedral, August 2-22

Gaëlle Arquez will play the lead role of Carmen when the opera is staged at this year's Edinburgh International Festival. Picture: Stefan Brion

The 900th anniversary of both the formation of the city of Edinburgh and the foundation of the famous cathedral on the Royal Mile will be marked by the festival with an “ever-evolving sound installation”. Voices and conversations drawn from communities across the city are expected to ebb and flow around visitors in the night-time experience.

Philharmonia Orchestra Residency, Usher Hall, August 21-25

The London-based orchestra's programme will include a performance of Verdi’s Requiem, the Richard Strauss opera Capriccio, a family concert starring festival director Nicola Benedetti, and a multi-media UK premiere of Fire In My Mouth, a new work by American composer Julia Wolfe that will feature the National Youth Choir of Scotland. Plans will be announced closer to the festival for a new “community hub” that will give visitors the chance to experience the work of the orchestra via virtual reality headsets.

Ilumina Residency, Usher Hall and The Hub, August 14-15

Nine years after being formed by violinist Jennifer Stumm in São Paulo, the musical collective will make their EIF debut. Two of their concerts will see audiences seated on beanbags after last year’s popular festival experiment.

The Alehouse Sessions, Usher Hall, August 15

Beanbags will also be replacing the stalls seating at the Usher Hall for a night, which will see the city’s prestigious concert hall transformed into a 17th-century London tavern. Audiences can expect a night of sea shanties and Scandinavian folk songs with Barokksolistene, the ensemble formed by Norwegian fiddler Bjarte Eike.

Penthesilea, Royal Lyceum Theatre, August 3-6

Audiences are being pre-warned to expect a “shocking, erotic retelling” of German playwright Heinrich von Kleist’s 1808 tragic love story. The Internationaal Theater Amsterdam will stage the play focusing on the relationship between star-crossed lovers Penthesilea and Achilles after they meet on the battlefield as the Amazons fight the Greeks in the Trojan War.