Edinburgh International Festival 8th-31st August 2008

• Highest ever ticket sales, with over £2.6m taken.
• World events give "Artists without Borders" theme powerful resonance
• Usher Hall concerts given a wonderful critical and public reception; the Festival looks forward to its first season in the renovated hall in 2009.
• Festival continues its successful Sharing the Festival next week in Stirling and Cumbernauld
• Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert set to light up the sky
• Plans already underway to build on this year's successful initiatives

RECORD-BREAKING YEAR: Highest ever ticket sales
More money than ever before was taken at the Edinburgh International Festival box office in 2008. The final figure at the box office is estimated to be £2.63m. The increase, a 7% rise on last year, is due in part to the widespread popularity of the dance programme, including Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray which became the biggest-selling dance event in the Festival's history. This sell-out event was seen by 13,123 people. Festival audiences for talks and conversations also significantly increased this year, signifying an increasing engagement with artists and the ideas behind the Festival programme.

International bookers for Festival 08 were up 3% on 2007, coming from all corners of the world; Singapore, Australia, China, France, Germany, Spain, Argentina, Hungary, Iran, Brazil, America, Pakistan, India, Austria, Japan, Belgium, Canada and Iceland. There was a significant increase of bookers from the Eastern fringes of Europe, tying in with this year's theme.

Edinburgh residents turned out in force, with city audiences increasing 2% on last year, and a small increase in students and people under 26, up 1% on 2007, all contributed to a very good year for the Edinburgh International Festival.

SELL OUTS
1 in 3 events were total sell-outs.  Events that sold all available tickets were: The Whirling Dervishes of Turkey, the Opening Concert, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Israel in Egypt, Alfred Brendel, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray, A Child of Our Time, Roby Lakatos, Fazil Say, Mischa and Lily Maisky, The Jerusalem Quartet, The Beaux Arts Trio, Gabriela Montero, Psalms and Canticles from the Eastern Churches, Chant Wars, Sacred and Secular Songs from Corsica, Secular and Spiritual Music from Georgia and the Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert.

WORLD EVENTS GIVE 2008 FESTIVAL THEME POWERFUL RESONANCE
World events lent powerful resonance to the programme's central theme: Artists without Borders. Many of the companies and artists selected for the 2008 Festival - from areas with very real challenges on their own borders - were chosen because of their immense contributions to the communities in which they work and live.

This year, however, some artists not only thrilled audiences with their Festival performances, but brought with them an extra significance to their appearances as events unravelled at home. Prima ballerina Nina Ananiashvili and her company the State Ballet of Georgia "danced for their country" as troubles continued to escalate in South Ossetia. A week later, Valery Gergiev took a planned break from his residency at the Edinburgh International Festival to travel to South Ossetia to conduct a concert in the shelled capital, Tskhinvali.

Mahmoud Darwish, the multi-award winning and highly respected Arab poet, died on 9 August 2008. An adaptation of his work Jidariyya had its UK premiere from the Palestinian National Theatre at the Festival five days later, the day after his funeral. The company dedicated its performance to its "beloved poet". Darwish's poem was written following his previous experience of recovering from heart surgery, lending the performances an extra level of poetry and poignancy in light of the events which preceded its opening.

WEBCASTS AND INTERNATIONAL PROFILE-RAISING: BUILDING ON SUCCESS FOR 2009
Organisers plan to develop a number of initiatives for 2009, following successful pilots or launches this year. These include efforts to more heavily promote the Festival abroad through international press launches (in 2008, press events were held in Sarajevo, Warsaw, Singapore and St Petersburg); and initiatives to further develop the international audience using live streaming of Festival events via the web. This year's web simulcasting pilot saw two Festival events broadcast live on-line to a specially selected audience.

Although mid-way through a multi-million pound redevelopment, the Usher Hall hosted 23 concerts in 2008. Many of the musical highlights received ecstatic audience receptions, not least Valery Gergiev's residency with the London Symphony Orchestra, Alfred Brendel's last-ever Edinburgh concert and Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducting the Monteverdi Choir.  The Usher Hall is on schedule to be complete for Spring 2009, and will be a centrepiece for next year's Festival.

SHARING THE FESTIVAL
Now in its second year, Sharing the Festival aims to take the Edinburgh International Festival to a new, wider audience. As the Festival drew to a close in Edinburgh, Class Enemy opened to a strong audience and good reception in Rutherglen. Next week the play continues its tour to Stirling and Cumbernauld. Violence in schools, gun crime and disaffected youth are just some of the hard-hitting themes of the powerful and gritty drama, presented by Sarajevo-based East West Theatre Company.

SUPPORTERS
The Festival's award winning sponsorship and development department had another successful year exceeding target. The continued loyalty of and creative partnerships with trusts and foundations, including Dunard Fund, and individual givers, along with a fantastic line up of corporate supporters including Bank of Scotland, Standard Life, Scottish and Newcastle/Heineken, and Baillie Gifford's Centenary Celebration helped make programming Festival 08 possible.

The Scottish Government's Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund in its inaugural year gave the Edinburgh International Festival £277,916 towards the Scottish Opera/Edinburgh International Festival co-production of The Two Widows.

FESTIVAL HEROES
The Festival appointed Sir Charles Mackerras its new Honorary President after his acclaimed concert with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Alfred Brendel on Wednesday 20 August. Sir Charles received a standing ovation from a packed Usher Hall. He is only the second Honorary President to be appointed in the Festival's history, the first being Yehudi Menuhin.

The sprightly queen of the Queen's Hall front of house staff, Vera Alexander became a hero in the final week of Festival 08, stopping an attempted robber in his tracks minutes before the Irvine Arditti, Rüdiger Lotter and the Lyriarte took to the stage for the morning concert. She may be in her 80s, but Vera is still sharp and certainly no push over, remembering the man from an attempt a year earlier.

IS IT OVER YET?
The Festival hasn't finished till the last rocket has banged, and the ever popular Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert, performed live by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at 9.00pm on Sunday 31 August, saw fans queuing from 4am this year for the final allocation of tickets.

IF YOU'RE MISSING IT ALREADY
There is one final opportunity to enjoy Festival 08, BBC Radio 3 continue to broadcast concerts from the Festival until Monday 29 September when the closing concert in the Usher Hall, Michael Tippet's wonderful A Child of our Time can be heard at 7.00pm on Performance on 3.

NEXT YEAR
And finally, the first company to be announced as part of the Edinburgh International Festival 2009 were Belt Up (nothing to see/hear), winners of the Edinburgh International Festival Award 2008. The Award is made for innovation, creativity and potential to a company on the Fringe, and having won it this year Belt Up Theatre will appear in the Behind the Scenes programme of Festival 09.

SOME WORDS FROM JONATHAN MILLS, FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
"So many people have drawn together to put on a fantastic Festival. I would like to thank our funders, our sponsors and supporters, the audiences, the staff and of course the artists for giving us a tremendous three weeks of performances. I hope people have enjoyed the journey we have been on together and I of course extend the invitation now to join us again in 2009. The Festival programme will be unveiled in March 2009, and I think you'll like it."