The Edinburgh International Festival has revealed the first details of its 2025 event taking place from 1st to 24th August 2025.
This, the third year with Festival Director Nicola Benedetti at the helm, will take as its theme "The Truth We Seek".
“To be alive is to know the elusive nature of truth,” said Benedetti. “Within our homes or workplaces, amongst loved ones or colleagues, we all experience trying to piece together indignantly expressed, absolutely believed, yet utterly contradictory truths. How often are we able to rise above our own bubble?”
Fluid Mary
Among this year’s shows, Scottish Ballet will perform the world premiere of a ballet about Mary, Queen of Scots (pictured). The first full-length narrative ballet from Scottish Ballet Resident Choreographer Sophie Laplane, it is told through the eyes of Queen Elizabeth I, based on her perceived and imagined relationship with Mary. The ballet will delve into the stories and legend that surrounds Mary.
Casting will be fluid and intergenerational, with various members of the company playing the part of Elizabeth I, including guest dancer Charlotta Öfverholm who will play her in her later years. The ballet will be performed in a conceptual set, with period-inspired costumes designed by Soutra Gilmour, with music by Mikael Karlsson and Michael P Atkinson, the team behind the reimagined score for Scottish Ballet’s 2022 International Festival show Coppélia.
Opera from Oz
The 2025 Festival’s opera programme will also include the European premiere of Opera Queensland’s production of Orpheus and Eurydice, which explores the enduring theme of true love and the depths to which our inner beliefs are challenged.
Created in collaboration with Australian, Fringe favourites Circa, the production introduces video projections and acrobatics to Gluck’s tragédie lyrique opera.
Conducted by Laurence Cummings, the production features the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and a chorus from Scottish Opera, under the direction of the circus troupe’s Artistic Director Yaron Lifschitz.
British countertenor and Grammy Award winner Iestyn Davies stars as Orpheus, performing alongside Australian soprano Samantha Clarke as Eurydice and Amore.
Resident Youth Orchestra
The International Festival has also announced a new three-year creative partnership with Carnegie Hall and its national youth ensembles, with the European debut of NYO2 (National Youth Orchestra 2), one of three resident orchestras in 2025.
The residency model is expected to strengthen the orchestra’s connection with Edinburgh, offering workshops and diverse performance styles to enrich the local cultural landscape.
NYO2 is formed of musicians aged 14 to 17 from diverse backgrounds from across the US. It is one of three national youth ensembles from the prestigious New York venue.
On their first European tour, NYO2 join their Scottish peers on stage for a family concert, forming cross-border connections and sharing the perspectives of the next generation of musicians in both countries.
Financial woes
Benedetti’s tenure has come at a difficult period for the EIF, as other festivals, and the broader arts grapple with a shrinking funding pot. Scottish Government funding of the festival has fallen far behind inflation, while corporate sponsorship has been increasingly under the activist spotlight.
The Edinburgh International Book Festival ended its partnership with sponsor Baillie Gifford earlier this year (it remains a sponsor of the EIF and Fringe).
Having lost the Festival Fireworks sponsor, the Festival now faces the prospect of a slimmed-down programme this year with no opening event and fewer performances at the Usher Hall.
In spite of what Benedetti has called “a squeezing of the Festival on all fronts” the organisers are proud that the Festival will still champion Scottish stories, creatives and companies during this “uncertain time for Scottish arts”, with its 2025 line-up featuring all five national performing companies.
The full programme for the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival will be announced in March 2025.