Edinburgh International Festival (EIF)
The Edinburgh Festival is one of the largest cultural events in the world, and takes place all over the city of Edinburgh over three weeks. It originated in 1947 and was established as the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), as a post-war effort to “provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit”. That same year, eight theatre companies “gatecrashed” the official Festival by organizing their own event, outside the official auspices of the EIF; this started the movement which grew into the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (EFF).The EIF and the Fringe are still independent from each other and run separate programmes each year. Since the Edinburgh International Festival’s early days, several other festivals have also been established in Edinburgh. Most of these take place in late summer each year, as well. There is, therefore, not one Edinburgh Festival, but a collection of independent festivals which happen to take place in the same city at about the same time. Each summer people visit Edinburgh from every corner of the globe and enjoy three exhilarating weeks of the very best in international opera, music, drama and dance.
Festival 2010 was an explosion of colour with performers from the Americas and the Pacific rubbing shoulders with artists from Spain, Holland, Germany, Russia and the UK, creating a delicious melting pot of entertainment.
Festival 2011 runs from 12 August to 4 September 2011 and will bring exotic and diverse cultures from Asia to Edinburgh – travelling across half the globe from the far east to the far west.
The finest artists from China, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam join others from around the world for a three-week exploration of our shared passions. Festival 2011 offers the chance to immerse yourself in the beauty, traditions and distinctive philosophies of these cultures, both ancient and modern.
