Wednesday March 11th 2026
Festival director Nicola Benedetti launches the 2026 programme themed 'All Rise' (photo by Andrew Perry)
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Running from 7-30 August 2026, this year’s Edinburgh International Festival presents 24 days of world-class performances selected for their artistic and cultural resonance across opera, theatre, music and dance.
The 2026 programme is centred on the theme All Rise, a rallying cry encompassing collaboration, resilience and ascendance.
Marking the 250th anniversary of American independence, the 2026 programme examines the ideas and impact of the USA with the Festival’s largest-ever representation of American artists. It explores recurring themes of freedom, ingenuity, prejudice, and hypocrisy, alongside the creative achievements made possible by the friction and energy of its cultural melting pot.
Spanning 147 performances from artists across 44 countries, including five world premieres and ten works commissioned by the International Festival, violin virtuoso Nicola Benedetti’s fourth programme as Festival Director brings together a handpicked programme of some of the greatest artists in their fields. The Festival is shaped as a space for conversation and reflection, where art meets dialogue, with seven post-show talks, two exhibitions, and a dedicated Global Ideas Stage offering deeper opportunities to unpack the themes shaping the world today.
Programme highlights include:
– The International Festival’s first-ever jazz ensemble residency, from Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, marks an historic moment as Wynton Marsalis prepares to step down after four decades as its founding artistic director. The residency launches with Marsalis’s symphony All Rise, a monumental Opening Concert with over 200 performers onstage, which has inspired this year’s Festival theme; Duke Ellington’s groundbreaking Black, Brown and Beige; and a world exclusive collaboration with piano virtuoso Yuja Wang, performing new arrangements by the Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis. A free community-led event in Princes Street Gardens is also inspired by the Festival theme.
– Two of the world’s pre-eminent symphony orchestras are also in residence for extended stays, deepening their connection with Edinburgh: the legendary Berliner Philharmoniker with conductor Kirill Petrenko and soloist Augustin Hadelich, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel in his final year and tour as the orchestra’s Music & Artistic Director.
– The newly renovated King’s Theatre reopens with two productions offering incisive reflections on America: Internationaal Theater Amsterdam’s epic five-hour staging of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, the epoch-defining work of the AIDS crisis, and Geoff Sobelle’s Clown Show, a darkly satirical portrait of the modern American Dream.
– Opera showcasing artists working at the height of their craft, including two contrasting works: the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s The Galloping Cure confronting the global opioid crisis, performed by Scottish Opera and conducted by Stuart Stratford; the UK production premiere of Verdi’s A Masked Ball from Zurich Opera House, set in America’s opulent Gilded Age; and operas in concert Don Giovanni (Mozart) from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus with conductor Maxim Emelyanychev and Elektra (Strauss) from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with conductor Karina Canellakis, each featuring internationally acclaimed soloists including Nina Stemme and Louise Alder.
– A first-time theatrical collaboration between award-winning Brazilian director Christiane Jatahy and Wagner Moura (recent Golden Globe winner and Oscar-nominated actor) in A Trial – after An Enemy of the People, a modern-day courtroom continuation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic. A Trial also marks the first chapter in a historic three-year commissioning collaboration between Edinburgh International Festival, Holland Festival and Festival d’Avignon.
– Theatre that foregrounds themes of resilience, exile and belonging, including Khashabi Theatre’s retelling of epic poem ‘Al-Sirah Al-Hilaliyyah’, Jaha Koo’s Haribo Kimchi set in a Korean snack bar, Mario Banushi’s visually stunning Taverna Miresia – Mario, Bella, Anastasia, and the UK premiere of Olympique Dramatique’s innovative [seagull], an adaptation of Chekhov in Flemish Sign Language.
– San Francisco Ballet’s return to the International Festival for the first time in over 20 years with European premiere Mere Mortals, a bold new full-company work from Canadian-American choreographer Aszure Barton. Reimagining the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box through humanity’s complex relationship with AI, composer and electronic musician Floating Points performs his original score live with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
– Compelling dance works including the UK premiere of Ihsane from double Olivier Award-winning choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, exploring how the world changes in a never-ending cycle of destruction and rebirth, whilst Groupwork’s When Prophecy Fails delves into collective belief through the psychology of a 1954 UFO doomsday cult and Dan Daw’s EXXY reclaims space for disabled artists.
– World-class morning concerts at The Queen’s Hall, launching with a new commission of Passion of Mary Magdalene from leading baroque ensemble Dunedin Consort, and featuring performances from artists including Vilde Frang and Sean Shibe, as well Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Makoto Ozone with the Kleio Quartet, and a series of concerts in tribute to the late Alfred Brendel. An evening performance in The Queen’s Hall sees a world premiere collaboration between Scottish smallpipes player Brìghde Chaimbeul and Scottish Ensemble.
– A wider orchestral programme that stretches the globe to welcome world-class performers to Edinburgh: Orchestre symphonique de Montréal performs two concerts with conductor and music director, Rafael Payare; Jordi Savall, Hespèrion XXI, La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Tembembe Ensamble Continuo honour the millions of victims of the transatlantic slave trade in A Sea of Music; and the trailblazing National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America returns as part of a three-year collaboration with Carnegie Hall. Informal beanbag concerts return to the Usher Hall, featuring a Festival debut from the Sinfonia of London with the music of Hollywood’s Golden Age and a Brass Fanfare tribute to the late inspirational trumpeter John Wallace.
– From Scotland, the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra take on Mahler’s epic Das klagende Lied led by Sir Donald Runnicles, and the Colin Currie Group celebrates the work of Steve Reich, including a world premiere of Festival co-commission In All Your Ways.
– Intimate, vibrant performances from artists crossing continents and genres filling The Hub, the Festival’s home on the Royal Mile, including an expanded number of spontaneous Up Late sessions curated by Mark O’Connor, Gustavo Dudamel, Donald Shaw and Nicola Benedetti. Further performances include musicians from the Aga Khan Music Programme, Senegalese dance band Orchestra Baobab, Mercury Prize-shortlisted Glasgow group corto.alto and contemporary Celtic musicians Gnoss, RÓIS, and Simon Thoumire, as well as Routes to Roots, a project led by Catriona Price in collaboration with Argentinian ensemble El Guapo.
– Events for families include the Scottish premiere of Hostile, a one-man Spaghetti Western from French theatre company Bakélite, a Family Concert from the inspirational Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) alongside their Scottish peers Big Noise, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and the International Festival’s interactive workshops for children and families, the Art of Listening, in Space @ The Broomhouse Hub.
– In visual art and talks, the first international exhibition of Alabama’s The Legacy Museum presents The Legacy of Slavery in the Playfair Library, charting the history of racial injustice in America as well as Scotland’s links to slavery, while British sculpture artist Anne Hardy transforms Talbot Rice Gallery with a site-specific solo exhibition turning the iconic Georgian Gallery into an immersive ‘found object’. The Global Ideas Stage curated and hosted by Harvard University professor Sarah Lewis and Nicola Benedetti promises a bold new form of public discourse with world-leading thinkers and cultural icons live on stage at the newly-refurbished King’s Theatre. A series of illuminating post-show talks with creative teams complements seven productions in the opera and theatre programme.
With a continued commitment to ensure that cost is not a barrier to cultural discovery, over 50,000 tickets for the 2026 International Festival will be available for £30 or less, including £10 ‘give it a go’ tickets for all events in the programme, encouraging audiences to try something new. Thousands of free tickets through the Young Musicians Pass for 8-18-year-olds and Tickets for Good for NHS staff, charity workers and low-income benefit recipients, will also be available across the programme.
Following the success of the Festival’s first Dementia-Friendly concert in 2025, this year two concerts will offer performances designed for people with dementia, alongside their caregivers, family and friends. Continuing the Festival’s commitment to accessibility, the wider programme also features 43 accessible performances, including the highest number of captioned performances to date, at 21. The updated free Access Pass continues to provide a tailored Festival experience for anybody needing additional support, by enabling members to share their access information in more detail.
Nicola Benedetti, Festival Director, Edinburgh International Festival said:
“Our 2026 Edinburgh International Festival is an invitation to All Rise. It’s a rallying cry to artists and audiences to stand with us, in our belief that through artistic endeavour we will see each other more truthfully and more tolerantly. Marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, we put America firmly in the spotlight. A nation whose ideals of freedom sit alongside deep hypocrisy, we are all drawn to its extreme possibilities because they reflect the aspirations and shortcomings we recognise in ourselves. The American story is filled with innovation and ingenuity, perseverance and prejudice – tensions that have fuelled some of the most extraordinary artistic achievements in history.
“This year’s programme brings together over 2,000 artists across opera, music, theatre and dance and through their voices we will confront complexity with curiosity and openness. At moments of uncertainty, the arts offers a space to gather, to question and to imagine differently. Join us this August as we rise together – through the dark, the dazzling, the challenging and the transformative. In doing so, we celebrate not only artistic excellence, but the resilience and flourishing of the human spirit.”
Angus Robertson, Culture Secretary, said:
“The Edinburgh International Festival is an unparalleled celebration of the performing arts and an annual meeting point for peoples of all nations. Committed to virtuosity and originality, the International Festival presents some of the finest performers and ensembles from the worlds of dance, opera, music and theatre. The Scottish Government is proud to support one of the most significant annual fixtures in the global cultural calendar through multi-year funding from Creative Scotland and the Festival EXPO Fund.”
Dana MacLeod, Executive Director of Arts, Communities and Inclusion at Creative Scotland said:
“Edinburgh International Festival offers an experience to see work of significant scale and ambition, a driving force behind the magnetic energy of the August festivals. This truly international programme of world-class artists alongside homegrown talent creates a powerful channel for international ideas and positions the value of global connection at its core. Creative Scotland is pleased to support the festival which brings joy to the city and a warm welcome to our international visitors.”
Margaret Graham, Culture and Communities Convener said:
“The International Festival is renowned for showcasing bold, world-class art, and 2026 promises to be one of its most exciting years yet. From internationally celebrated artists to brilliant new voices, the programme is packed with another season of unforgettable performances. There truly is something for everyone to enjoy, and I’m delighted that so many people will be able to share in the magic.”
The 2026 edition of the Edinburgh International Festival takes place from 7-30 August 2026. General booking opens on Thursday 26 March, with tickets available to members and supporters from Thursday 19 March.
To view the full festival lineup visit: www.eif.co.uk
Watch below the full trailer for this years festival.
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