Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival called off after running for 42 years

Edinburgh's long-running jazz and blues festival has been cancelled after falling victim to the coronavirus pandemic - the last of the city's major summer festivals to pull the plug.

A free carnival is staged in the city centre on the opening weekend of the festival.

The event, which has been running for 42 years and is the biggest of its kind in Britain, marks the traditional start of the city's main summer festivals season.

Organisers say they would do their best to try to reschedule as many acts who were booked to appear as possible.

More than 150 concerts are usually staged across the city at venues like the Queen's Hall, the Festival Theatre, George Square Garden and Teviot Row, while the festival's opening weekend has traditionally featured two big free events, a "Mardis Gras" in the Grassmarket and a carnival on and around Princes Street.

Concerts by Curtis Stigers and Jools Holland had already been announced for this year's festival, which was due to run from 16-25 July.

It has been called off two weeks after the International Festival, the Fringe, the Tattoo, and the city's annual celebrations of visual art and literature pulled the plug.

The Edinburgh Mela, the city's long-running multicultural celebration, and the Edinburgh International Festival Film have also been halted this summer by Covid-19.

The Edinburgh Summer Sessions, a series of open-air concerts in Princes Street Gardens featuring Simple Minds, Travis, Lionel Richie and Sir Tom Jone, are still due to go ahead at the moment.

A statement from the jazz and blues festival confirming its cancellation said: "Our key priority is the health and wellbeing of our audiences, practitioners and staff and we wish you all well through this challenging time."

Festival chair Jason Rust added: "The last few weeks have reinforced to me how special live music is, from intimate gigs to great sonic adventures.

"The sense of community that live music creates is special too as audiences unite with musicians to share a moment.

“I believe music can continue to unite us and bring joy in these worrying times, and we are working on how we can still share that with you in the coming weeks via our online platforms.

As You Like It was one of the shows staged as part of Bard in the Botanics last year. Picture: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.

"Our staff are unearthing interesting footage and content to share and working closely with Scottish musicians to bring new digital content which is an artistic response to the times.

"The board would like to pay tribute to the hard work of the festival team in developing this programme.

“In these difficult times, we are doing our best to support the Scottish musicians and practitioners without whom we will not have a scene, and will do our best to reschedule the many artists who were due to be involved."

Meanwhile organisers of Glasgow’s annual “Bard in the Botanics” event, which sees Shakespeare plays staged in the Botanic Gardens and Kipple Place, have pulled the plug on its annual season, which was due to run from 24 June to 1 August.

The festival, which has staged more than 50 productions of Shakespeare’s work in its first 18 years, has had audiences totalling more than 70,000 since it was first held.

Artistic director Gordon Barr said: “While we are incredibly disappointed that we will not be able to share our work with audiences this summer, it is so important that everyone works together to support the current government guidelines to help stem the spread of this disease.

“The safety and wellbeing of our audiences and all the artists who work with us has to be our priority at this time.”