Each year Edinburgh welcomes tens of thousands of leading international arts professionals to take part in its renowned August festivals season.

The British Council is supporting platforms for international connection and collaboration at Edinburgh’s Festivals this year, and helping bring together creative professionals from across the world:

Momentum

Momentum is the British Council Scotland partnership programme with Creative Scotland & Festivals Edinburgh, providing a platform for key cultural figures from across the world to build relationships with the festivals and the wider Scottish cultural sector. This year’s delegations covering Visual Arts and Literature are from: Poland, Viet Nam, South Korea, MENA, Mexico, Nordics and Turkey, alongside specialist delegations for Visual Arts and Literature delegations.

Read more about Momentum and the impact of the programme over the years.

Edinburgh Art Festival  Opening provocation 
Edinburgh College of Art | 11 August - 11am—3pm

We are again supporting the opening provocation for the start of Edinburgh Arts Festival.  EAF has invited global practitioners to reflect on 2024's key themes: the conditions under which we live, work, gather and resist.

They will be joined by Cooper Gallery (DJCAD, University of Dundee),  Falastin Film Festival, a volunteer-run collective bringing Palestinian art to Scotland through cinema, music, cuisine, and other storytelling mediums; Haven for Artists, a Beirut-based cultural feminist organisation rooted in intersectional feminism, gender, racial justice, and decolonial practices; Lighthouse Books, Edinburgh’s oldest radical, queer-owned bookshop and unapologetically activist, intersectional community space; and Más Arte Más Acción, a Colombian foundation using art and ecology to facilitate conversations about the Climate Emergency.

Edinburgh Art Festival | Faovale Imperium 
National Museums of Scotland | 17- 18 August

"Faovale Imperium" is a free performance event taking place as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival at the National Museum of Scotland. It features New Zealand Samoan/Welsh comedian James Nokise and DJ Don Luchito exploring the museum's Pacific collections through a mix of poetry and music. The performances aim to amplify Pacific voices and perspectives within the museum collection. Supported by British Council New Zealand as part of the Connections Through Culture grant, as well as funding from Creative New Zealand.

Edinburgh International Book Festival
Island to Island | Fri 23 Aug 15:30 - 16:30

essa may ranapiri and Jenni Fagan in converstion with Esa Aldegheri.   

Scottish writer Jenni Fagan and Aotearoa/New Zealand writer essa may ranapiri come together for the first time for a conversation that celebrates writing across oceans, islands, and cultures. Fagan and ranapiri are the inaugural recipients of the Island to Island writers residency exchange with Moniack Mhor and Verb Wellington, supported by British Council New Zealand and the Pacific. They speak with multilingual writer, educator and researcher Esa Aldegheri.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe | Summerhall 
Cosmos | 8-11 August 

Ashtar Muallem is presenting her original work "Cosmos" at the Edinburgh Festivals for the first time in English. The show, which has previously been performed in an Arabic adaptation directed by Emile Saba, humorously explores Ashtar's life and spirituality as she navigates between her home in Palestine and time spent in France, seeking balance and connection with the divine. Inspired by her cherished memories of Jerusalem and her grandmother, Ashtar's elastic physical performance mirrors her dual existence between two countries, cultures, and languages. This presentation of "Cosmos" in English is supported by the British Council's work with the Ashtar Youth Theatre Festival and Creative Spaces residencies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Emile Saba is here in Edinburgh participating as a Momentum delegate.

Momentum delagates, Creative Scotland & British Council Scotland meeting at Edinburgh Festival in 2022.
Haven for Artists, in residency in 2023 at Edinburgh Arts Festival ©

Haven for Artists