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.
Read more about Momentum and the impact of the programme over the years.
Theatre and Dance Programme
Our Theatre and Dance team will host 25 industry delegates from 14-20 August, they will view tour-ready UK work across the Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and UK Nations showcases:
Edinburgh Fringe | Someone Like Me |
Studio Two | Assembly George Square Studios | 30 July - 10 August at 18:40
In partnership with the Ukrainian Institute, we are supporting Nina Khyzhna's performance Someone Like Me at the Fringe. A physical solo performance by Nina about the journey of a disembodied person through the bodies of others. She learns the experiences of those who meet with fear day after day and find ways to resist it. Through the state of their muscles, through their movements, habits and feelings, the creature learns the experiences of people who have to be in danger caused by war. The physical condition and movements of these people reflect their stress, pain, sadness, new skills of fighting and survival, but also pleasure, humour, thirst.
Edinburgh International Book Festival | From Aotearoa to Alba: A Literary Exchange
Spiegeltent | 21 August
A vibrant celebration of the poetic connections between the two nations, based on a shared love of performance and music. Featuring special guests including Dominic Hoey, Abby Howells, Jackie Kay, Becky Manawatu, Hollie McNish, and Michael Pedersen - a rich exchange of culture and creativity awaits. Plus, they'll be joined by the amazing Gemma Cairney for a DJ set to see out the evening.
Supported by British Council New Zealand and the Pacific.
Edinburgh Art Festival | Más Arte Más Acción's Around a Tree
Royal Botanic Gardens | 7-24 August
Edinburgh Art Festival, through our Biennials Connect fund, presents Colombian foundation Más Arte Más Acción's Around A Tree at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, featuring Brazilian trans-Indigenous performance artist and biologist UÝRA.
This permanent installation - newly installed for continuing use after its original EAF24 presentation - creates a site for gathering, dialogue, and exchange around pressing conversations on the climate crisis.
Edinburgh Art Festival | Closing Conversation | Where do we stand?
EAF Pavilion event | 24 August
We're also supporting EAF25's closing event - an intimate afternoon of open conversation, film screenings, performance, and shared food exploring how we shape our world and how it shapes us in return. This gathering brings together programme artists alongside local collectives and thinkers, creating space for reflection on ancestral knowledge, cultural memory, and resistance to disconnection from place. The conversation examines how art can bridge past wisdom with a sustainable, interconnected future.
