Joyce McMillan: In short, Fergus Linehan’s a winner

THERE was delight in Dublin, celebration mixed with sadness in Sydney and plenty of quiet satisfaction in Edinburgh as the announcement of the appointment of the new director of the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF)flashed around the planet.

Fergus Linehan. Picture: Contributed

For Fergus Linehan is that rarest of things in the world of top-level arts programming, a man with few enemies, and almost no serious critics. Born in Dublin in 1969 into an Irish family studded with creative talent – his father arts editor of the Irish Times, his brother Conor a respected composer and pianist, and his mother, Rosaleen Linehan, one of Ireland’s leading actresses – Fergus Linehan comes from a culture in which theatre plays a leading role.

He was appointed director of the great Dublin International Theatre Festival aged only 29, back in 1999, and his Edinburgh appointment is certainly good news for theatre fans, given his network of connections and knowledge in that art form.

What is striking is the extent to which Linehan has emerged as an outstanding programmer across all arts forms since he left Dublin in 2004 to become director of the Sydney Festival, presiding over a huge expansion in its programme and budget. In 2010, he became head of music at Sydney Opera House, where he masterminded a highly successful and wide-ranging music programme.

In Edinburgh, we can expect Linehan to strike a careful balance between art forms, to innovate at a pace that is steady rather than disruptive, and to aim for a substantial increase in the size and range of audiences. He is also likely to pursue closer relationships between the EIF and Edinburgh’s other August festivals, including the Fringe, which he knows so well – in recent years, he has chaired the judging panel for the Edinburgh Festival’s Fringe Award. We can also expect a sharp-eyed re-assessment of the EIF team, and how it can best be reshaped for the coming decade.

Linehan is famous for his good taste not only in programming, but in the people he works with. And the consensus of those who know him seems to be that, while he can be charm itself, those who are negotiating with him should never underestimate his strategic sense, or his skill. It seems the new EIF director is a poker player who always keeps a card in reserve. So far in his remarkable career, he has rarely, if ever, played a losing hand.