Relive some of the most beautiful, breathtaking moments from this year's festival and join us again next year from 7-31 August 2020!
We kicked off the festival with a night of sunshine and movie music at Tynecastle Park and were even joined by some very special guests...
Building on the success of last year, the International Festival returned to Leith Theatre with Edinburgh Gin and other venues across the city for an eclectic programme of contemporary music. Leith Theatre lived up to its reputation as ‘the best live music venue in Scotland’ (The List) and with performances from Kate Tempest, Neneh Cherry, Jarvis Cocker and many more, this year's series brought some of the most unique and exciting voices in contemporary music today to Edinburgh.
Dance companies from across the globe came to perform in this year's International Festival, from China to Northern Ireland, Canada to Burkina Faso, and Scotland to the US. There was even some home-grown talent on display, as choreographer Oona Doherty worked with 12 young female dancers from House of Jack, a Leith based hip-hop collective. They went on to dance Episode II – The Sugar Army in all four Edinburgh performances of Hard to Soft: A Belfast Prayer.
This year's thought-provoking programme asked potent questions about the world today. Productions like The Secret River and Red Dust Road provided beautiful adaptations of acclaimed literary works, while Peter Gynt and Oedipus re-imagined past classics...
As well as our breath-taking concert performances of Orfeo ed Euridice, Manon Lescaut and Götterdämmerung, this year's programme included two beautifully staged operas. The pastoral scenes of Eugene Onegin couldn't be more different to the gritty oil rigs of Breaking The Waves, but they had in common outstanding casts, atmospheric staging, and a fondness for a revolving stage...
From Wagner to West Side Story, and from intimate recitals at St Cecilia's Hall to our charming Queen's Hall series and packed houses at the Usher Hall, this year's classical music programme was full of old favourites and new surprises.
A series of readings, discussions, informal performances and hosted dinners, The Departure Lounge was a new brand new element of this year's You Are Here programme. Based in the The Lyceum Rehearsal Studio, The Departure Lounge provided a space for the public to meet with writers, directors, musicians, choreographers and performers, sharing fresh perspectives and diverse insights shaped by who they are and where they’re from.
As has been tradition for nearly 40 years, this year's International Festival went out with a bang. 400,000 fireworks, a world class orchestra, and one of the most magnificent settings in the world provided a fitting end to three weeks of outstanding music, dance, theatre and opera from some of the world's greatest artists.