Edinburgh International Festival: A refreshing message of hope with lessons for politicians and society at large – Scotsman comment

With 295 events and 2,000 performers, Edinburgh International Festival is set to return to its pre-pandemic scale.

And, with Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti as director, it brings a renewed interest in fostering a “healthy debate”, not just about the performances themselves, but the human condition, with three themes: community over chaos; hope in the face of adversity; and a perspective that’s not one’s own.

Benedetti wrote on the festival’s website: “When asked what I really dream of at the end of my own personal journey with Edinburgh International Festival, I always return to the same sentiment. I’d like to think that we have contributed to a deeper culture of listening, improved understanding of another person’s point of view and increased our tolerance of each other. Growing in curiosity and patience for the messy, beautiful, diverse story of humanity.”

In an age of divisive politics, social media rage, and a cost-of-living crisis that has lingered too long, this is a sentiment that society as a whole needs to encourage. Bitter infighting only makes our troubles worse.

A practical demonstration of the idea of togetherness comes in the shape of the “reimagined” Hub, the festival's home on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, which has been designed to break down the ‘fourth wall’ barrier that normally exists in any kind of performance. Benedetti said the venue would be a “hybrid between a green room... [and] not a back-stage feel but more kind of a living room feel” in order to “bring the artist as close to the audience as possible”. It sounds like it could be the place to be in August, a physical coming together of people, in contrast to the virtual reality of computers where we can, as Benedetti put it, “permanently retreat into our own curated world”.

The internet caused an information revolution as profoundly disruptive as the invention of the printing press, with both good and bad consequences. The 2008 financial crash, the Covid pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have all had earth-shattering effects. As politicians struggle to find messages of hope, there is a need for artists to ask meaningful questions.

Even if the answers are not immediately practical, they may help society move in the right direction. Benedetti’s plea for greater mutual understanding is certainly a good place to start.