8-hour concert, Brian Cox play open 'more compact' 2025 Edinburgh International Festival as programme unveiled

The Edinburgh International Festival has unveiled its programme for this year

An eight-hour classical music concert concert, performed in its entirety for the first time in the UK since its premiere, is to open this year’s Edinburgh International Festival (EIF).

The Veil of the Temple, by John Tavener, is to be performed at the Usher Hall to an audience seated on beanbags, starting at 2.30pm and finishing at 10.30pm.

Festival director Nicola Benedetti at the launch of this year's Edinburgh International Festival programme. | EIF

Unveiling this year’s programme, EIF director and celebrated violinist Nicola Benedetti acknowledged a “more compact festival” due to a lack of certainty around arts funding at the time the line-up of performances was drawn up. But she said the event, which celebrates its 80th anniversary in 2027, had “big ambitions”.

Ms Benedetti said Creative Scotland’s recent finance settlement with not only the EIF, but with hundreds of arts organisations across Scotland, would offer a “firm foundation” for the future.

Other highlights in the festival programme, under the overarching theme, The Truth We Seek, include Make it Happen by James Graham, starring Succession star Brian Cox as Royal Bank of Scotland chief Sir Fred Goodwin. The play, which charts the 2008 financial crisis, will feature at this year’s event, as well as a circus-infused opera and a contemporary ballet with costumes, including a “nod to punk” telling the story of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Meanwhile, there will be a performance from Australian disabled dance artist Dan Daw and dance show Breaking Bach will see hip-hop meet 18th-century period instruments.

Hip hop meets 18th century instruments in Breaking Bach. | Breaking Back

Now in its third year under the leadership of Ms Benedetti, the 2025 programme welcomes over 1,700 artists from 42 nations to Edinburgh, including 600 from Scotland, across 133 performances.

EIF chief executive Francesca Hegyi warned last year the festival was having to "plan for the worst" for 2025 and beyond due to a lack of clarity over its public funding.

Ms Benedetti admitted recently the EIF had had to double its income from philanthropic sources to compensate for government funding cuts, while this year it will not include the large-scale opening event usually held to launch the festival. However, EIF will now receive £11.75 million of core funding over the next three years as part of an £208m funding package unveiled by Creative Scotland at the start of this year.

The package will support 251 events, venues and arts centres over the next three years.

“We do have a more compact festival this year due to that uncertainty, so the impact can be seen immediately,” Ms Benedetti told The Scotsman. “But we’re incredible grateful for the [Creative Scotland] settlement.

The Dan Daw Show is part of the festival. | Dan Daw Show

“It’s been well received for us, but also across the whole cultural landscape in Scotland and has given us a firm foundation upon which to build. We have big ambitions and we’re going to have to continue with our fundraising efforts to really achieve the height of what we have planned.”

She said the Veil of the Temple was an example of the “unconventional” performances running through this year’s festival programme.

Sung in five different languages, the work will be performed by 250 singers from Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Monteverdi Choir and the National Youth Choir of Scotland. Billed as a “colossal, universal prayer” and lauded by Mr Tavener as the “supreme achievement of my life”, it was last performed in its entirety at its world premiere at the Temple Church, London, 27 years ago.

Audience members, who will be seated on beanbags in a reconfiguration of Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, will be allowed to come and go throughout the performance of The Veil of the Temple, with refreshments available throughout and a glass of sparkling wine on offer to mark the end of the concert.

“This year is a particularly exciting festival, with a lot of unconventional performance,” Ms Benedetti added. “The unconventional part of this year’s festival is in not just the choice of artistic presentation, but how we are presenting them and that continues in the Usher Hall.”

She said she did not believe the EIF had ever produced something “quite so monumental in length” before.

“It will be something really quite poetic for people to engage in,” she said. “There are eight cycles through the piece and opportunities for audiences to leave and come back in and take a breather. But I think it’s a really important point around the patience and staying power that counters something we battle with in today’s world where everything happens so fast and everything is so accessible so fast.

“It will be fascinating to see how the audience settles into that space.”

Scottish Ballet will perform Mary, Queen of Scots. | EIF

Dana MacLeod, Creative Scotland’s executive director of arts, communities and inclusion, praised the festival’s “imaginative programme”, which she said brings “important conversations” to Edinburgh.

She said: “Borne out of a belief in the power of the arts to connect and provide hope in a divided world, the International Festival’s original ethos remains true today, with international and home-grown talent presenting stimulating work, reflecting and celebrating the world we inhabit.”

Scottish Ballet’s Mary, Queen of Scots draws on the complex relationship between the Scottish queen and Elizabeth I of England. The performance will tell the iconic story unconventionally, with choreography by Sophie Laplane blending classicism with modernity and featuring costumes with a nod to haute couture and punk.

The International Festival’s opening weekend welcomes all to Princes Street Gardens’ Ross Bandstand. | EIF

Meanwhile, the International Festival’s opening weekend welcomes to Princes Street Gardens’ Ross Bandstand for The Big Singalong, a free event led by Stephen Deazley, artistic director of Edinburgh’s Love Music Community Choir.

This year, for the first time, a dementia-friendly concert will be presented for people living with the disease, their care givers, family and friends. This performance from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, in association with Alzheimer Scotland, enables those who have dementia to enjoy familiar repertoire in a relaxed and flexible environment.

The wider 2025 programme features 33 accessible performances, including nine audio described performances, seven BSL interpreted performances, 13 captioned performances and four relaxed performances.

Culture Secretary Angus Robertson said: “The Edinburgh International Festival has stood as a global celebration of the performing arts, and their power to bridge cultural and national differences since 1947. That role is as relevant as ever, so I very much welcome the festival’s commitment to affordability and accessibility in this year’s programme.”

General booking for the 2025 International Festival opens on March 27, with tickets now on sale to members and supporters.