Edinburgh International Festival announces 2026 programme

Scotland’s most prestigious celebration of arts and culture, the Edinburgh International Festival, returns this summer, running 7 to 30 August, and it promises to be back with avangence. After a couple of smaller editions, the festival is returning to its full scale thanks to a massive multi-year funding package from Creative Scotland to the tune of £11.75 million over the next three years. 

This year’s festival theme is All Rise. Not a reference to Blue’s 2001 banger, but rather "a rallying cry encompassing collaboration, resilience and ascendance". When introducing this year’s programme, the festival’s Artistic Director, Nicola Benedetti, called the theme an invitation for this year’s artists and audience members to “stand with us in our firm belief that the patient and mutual observation of artistic creations can help us see each other more truthfully.” 

The International Festival is also marking the 250th anniversary of American Independence with a politically charged lineup of work from the US exploring themes of freedom, ingenuity, prejudice and hypocrisy, as well as celebrating the kinds of creative achievements that have been made possible by the friction and energy that comes from the State’s unique melting pot. Also expect the usual mix of local and international artists, with 147 performances by over 2000 artists from 44 different countries.

Theatre: Wagner Moura, Angels in America

Angels in America | photo: Fee Golin

Theatre fans will be chuffed to see the King’s Theatre back as an International Festival venue after it reopens following a major refurbishment, but they’ll also have plenty to celebrate in this year’s strong-looking theatre programme. 

It’s already been announced that Oscar-nominee Wagner Moura will lead A Trial – After an Enemy of the People. A coproduction with Festival d’Avignon and Holland Festival, it’s an intriguing-sounding sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s groundbreaking An Enemy of the People, in which Thomas Stockmann is turned on by his neighbours after exposing a water pollution scandal in town. In this new work, which takes the form of a trial, Moura plays Stockmann, and a jury made up of audience members will decide his fate each night. The celebrated Brazilian director Christiane Jatahy is directing this new production and says it will explore the modern battles with fascism. 

After A Little Life in 2022 and Penthesilea in 2024, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam is back at the Festival with a radical reworking of Angels in America, Tony Kushner’s two-part, seven-hour play set during the height of the AIDS epidemic. Directed by Ivo van Hove, both parts of the play (Millennium Approaches and Perestroika) will be staged as one epic work and David Bowie will be on the soundtrack. Kushner has said this is his favourite version of the play. 

Hang Time, Zora Howard’s play exploring racialised violence, masculinity and brotherhood, looks incredibly powerful and harrowing. Taking place on a minimalist stage, it features three Black men as they hang from a tree and discuss their world views, seemingly stuck in a space between life and death. For something more upbeat, there’s Ingoma! A Revolution in Rhythm, a storytelling concert described as a joyous explosion of drum, dance and song from the internationally acclaimed Ingoma Nshya: The Women Drummers of Rwanda. 

Haribo Kimchi courtesy of the company

We’re also intrigued by Haribo Kimchi, which sees Jaha Koo cooking in his late-night Korean snack cart as he serves up food and chats to the audience about his experience of living in Europe miles away from his home in Korea – be sure not to go on an empty stomach. There’s also a new version of Chekhov’s The Seagull – titled [Seagull] – told using Flemish Sign Language performed by a cast that mixes Deaf and hearing actors.

Elsewhere, Palestinian theatre company Khashabi Theatre present a stage version of the legendary Arab poem Al-Sirah Al-Hilaliyyah with the retelling featuring physical theatre, music, puppetry and dance. And family audiences can take in Hostile, which follows a cowboy as he tries to outmanoeuvre some bandits in the desert in what's being described as a spaghetti western play. 

Opera and Dance: Missy Mazzoli, Floating Points, Dan Daw

This is Timothée Chalamet’s worst nightmare: two ‘dying art forms’ that are very much alive at the International Festival. One of the hottest tickets this year will likely be the world premiere of The Galloping Cure from Missy Mazzoli, one of the most exciting composers in contemporary opera. This new work delves into the opioid crisis, and is described as "a darkly funny fable of a crumbling society”. It will be brought to life by conductor Stuart Stratford and Scottish Opera’s orchestra. For something more classic, there’s Verdi’s tragicomic opera A Masked Ball, with director Adele Thomas transporting events to the American Gilded Age. There are also two operas in concert at the Usher Hall: Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Strauss’s Elektra. 

Mere Mortals courtesy of the company

In terms of dance, we’re excited to see (and hear) Floating Points, aka Sam Shepherd, providing an original score that will be performed live for Mere Mortals, a new ballet reimagining the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box as a cautionary tale about artificial intelligence. In a show choreographed by Aszure Barton, we’re told to expect a blend of classical dance, cutting-edge visuals and electronic sound. 

Aussie dancer and choreographer Dan Daw returns with EXXY, a bold new dance-theatre work where Daw, who's disabled, asks, ‘How do we value ourselves when society does not?’ Scottish ensemble Groupwork present When Prophecy Fails, a physical theatre piece inspired by the world's first UFO cult. And there’s Ihsane, a new dance work about grief, destruction and rebirth from Olivier-winning choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. 

Contemporary and Trad Music: corto.alto, Camilla George, Brìghde Chaimbeul

Anyone hoping that the Festival’s increase in funding might mean a return to the large-scale pop concerts that were commonplace under the previous EIF artistic director, Fergus Linehan, will be disappointed. Benedetti’s focus continues to be classical music – the lineup is huge this year – but there is a smattering of contemporary performers coming for more intimate shows at The Hub. Take, for example, Glaswegian jazz artist corto.alto, who’s bringing his blistering live show to Edinburgh. Another jazz fave is Camilla George; she and her band will be offering up a night of jazz, hip-hop and Afrofuturism. Also look out for Irish folk composer Róis, Grammy-winning couple Mark and Maggie O’Connor, Scottish folk band Gnoss and trailblazing Scottish smallpipes player Brìghde Chaimbeul.

Classical Music: Berlin Philharmoniker, Wynton Marsalis

The most richly programmed section of the International Festival is its classical music lineup. The Berlin Philharmoniker, possibly the best orchestra in the world, returns to EIF for the first time in 20 years for a residency. In the jazz world, it doesn’t get more prestigious than the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, which will be EIF’s first-ever jazz ensemble residency. Their four concerts will include the Festival's opening show All Rise, which will see 200 performers take to the stage to perform Wynton Marsalis’s 12-movement symphony of the same name. 

The LA Phil are no slouches, either, and bring a series of concerts. There’s also a trio of concerts in tribute to the late pianist and composer Alfred Brendel, and the popular Bean Bag concerts return. 

This is just a taste of what’s on offer at this year’s Festival. The full programme is available to peruse at eif.co.uk, with tickets going on general sale on 26 March. During the cost-of-living crisis, the Festival continues to try to keep ticket prices low. We’re told that more than 50,000 tickets will be available at £30 and there will be £10 ‘Give it a Go Tickets’ available for all events in the programme. Concessions are also available for D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent customers, under-18s, and arts workers.

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Edinburgh International Festival runs from 7-30 Aug, various venues. For more information, head to eif.co.uk