Edinburgh International Book Festival: Music, Poetry and Performance Highlights

As one might expect, the Music, Poetry and Performance strand of the EIBF is a broad church, but common threads emerge. Colin Greenwood, Radiohead’s archetypally quiet bassist, offers an insider perspective on the revered band in How To Disappear (16 August). Stuart Murdoch, frontman of cult favourites Belle & Sebastian, talks about fictionalising his early experiences of faith, ME and songwriting in Late Developer (23 August). Music producer Joe Boyd has long been a witness to music history and discusses his personal history of global music, And The Roots of Rhythm Remain (22 August).

Closer to home, Carrie Marshall and Gary West compare notes on Scotland’s queer musical trailblazers and piper Martyn Bennett in God Save The Scene (11 August), while Marshall joins broadcaster Nicola Meighan, musician Emma Pollock, theatremaker Cora Bissett and writer Chitra Ramaswamy for 1995: Grrrls Aloud (10 August), a celebration of Nineties girl power, with live music from Cariss Crosbie.

Malachy Tallack PIC: Craig Colahan

Music and words also collide in the annual Stress Test – Live (11 August), where poets and musicians have 15 minutes to collaborate on a song. The following day, Malachy Tallack and band bring to life songs written by Jack, the protagonist of Tallack’s novel The Beautiful Atlantic Waltz (12 August).

READ MORE: That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz by Malachy Tallack review: 'an evocative portrayal of Shetland life'

Cellist Simone Seales accompanies her own poems, read by Mele Broomes (13 August), and harpist Esther Swift presents her musical settings of Jackie Kay’s poetry in The Heartstrings of Poetry (15 August). Writer Angus Peter Campbell is joined by his musician daughters Brighde, Ciorstaidh and Steaphanaidh Campbell for a further fusion of poetry and traditional music in Rhymes and Reels (18 August) and poet Harry Josephine Giles and piper Malin Lewis present their collaboration Unco (14 August).

Esther Swift

Scotland’s new Makar Peter Mackay showcases a range of Scottish poets writing in English, Gaelic, Polish and Arabic in Our Mother Tongues (11 August), while Edinburgh’s Makar Michael Pedersen appears in cosmic collaboration with poet Hollie McNish, wildlife photographer Gordon Buchanan and musician Lomond Campbell at Dynamic Earth (11 August) and in his own Meeting One’s Makar event (12 August).

Michael Pedersen

Colin Bramwell, Iona Lee and Leyla Josephine resurrect the ancient Scots art of flyting – the rap battle of its day – for Flyte Night 2025 (20 August), and 12 poets compete for a £3,000 prize in the Loud Poets Grand Slam Final (9 August), while the non-competitive can take their chance at Rock the Boat: Open Mic Poetry (20 August).

Leyla Josephine

If you are looking for a quieter, more sobering environment, war correspondent Lindsey Hilsum looks at the solace of poetry in wartime in Poetry As An Act of Witness (15 August) and Palestinian-American poet Fady Joudah (17 August) and contemporary Arab poet Najwan Darwish (10 August) both respond with mixed emotions to their homeland.

The thesps get in on the action too. Harriet Walter gives voice to Shakespeare’s female characters in Beyond the Bard (10 August) and the starry likes of Vanessa Redgrave and Viggo Mortensen join the cast of The People Speak (24 August), featuring stories, speeches and songs of global protest.

READ MORE: Edinburgh International Book Festival 2025: Fiction Highlights