Edinburgh Festival to focus on reconciling ‘complexities of truth’ – Benedetti

The Edinburgh International Festival will this year focus on reconciling the “complexities of truth”, its director Nicola Benedetti has said.

The event’s theme is The Truth We Seek, and it will see more than 1,700 artists from 42 nations, including 600 from Scotland, take to the stage in Edinburgh from August 1 to 24.

The festival programme was revealed on Thursday, and it features a wide range of performances, including music, theatre, class opera and dance, all tied in with the theme of “truth”.

Benedetti, a multi-award winning Scottish violinist, said the arts are in a position where they can separate fact from disinformation.

Ahead of the programme’s launch, she said: “The arts are at an advantage with a problem like that, because what we’re trying to get across is that talking about truth versus when you’re talking about fact.

“Truth is something that encompasses a lot of different perspectives and encompasses past, present and future. Fact is something that you can observe and you can check and recheck.

“What we’re trying to say as a festival is that you need the humility to be able to say, actually there’s very little in life that you know for sure – you always need to be in a position of questioning everything you see, but we’re also saying that today’s world is far too lazy with checking and proving that.

“For our festival to ask the big questions like that and it to be in the air as people go into our shows and go into our performances, the performances themselves will only deepen your questioning of how do you do with and reconcile the complexities of truth.

“Our 2025 Edinburgh International Festival invites you to explore The Truth We Seek – a journey into the elusive nature of truth, in our personal and public lives. In an era of ‘alternative facts’ and manipulated narratives, the arts offer us something deeper: a poetic and metaphorical wisdom that is both more nuanced and more precise.”

Benedetti, who was made an MBE in 2013 for her services to music and charity, said it is tough to pick any particular “must-see” moments in the festival line-up, but said the opening show is one to watch.

She said: “I don’t know where to start with what is unmissable. We kick off the festival with a really unconventional moment which is in the Usher Hall.

“It’s a concert that’s going to be an eight-hour performance with 250 singers featuring our Festival Chorus, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

“There’ll be an incredible exploration into the essence of truth from perspectives around the world, looking at how all religions actually speak a common, universal truth, so it’s breaking down some of that disharmony.

“We also have an incredible performance in the old college quad, so it’d be really unusual in that it’s a common dance performance.”

Other festival highlights include opera incorporating circus performers for a fusion of music and acrobatics in Orpheus And Eurydice, and Breaking Bach – where hip-hop meets 18th-century period instruments.

Succession star Brian Cox is also set to return to the Scottish stage for the first time in a decade, starring in Make It Happen, a satirical play written by playwright James Graham exploring Scotland’s role in the global financial crash of 2008.

The fictional account features a mix of characters in incidents inspired by real-life events, and Cox will play pioneering Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith.

Despite funding uncertainty last year, Benedetti told the PA news agency: “I would say we’re in a celebratory moment right now, we’re at the beginning of a three-year funding settlement, it’s a really pivotal moment for culture in Scotland.

“With this many organisations, 251, being funded (through Creative Scotland) to the tune of £200 million, now is not the time to immediately start with the worry sentiment, it’s the time for everyone to work together, to act as a collective and to galvanise the increased support for the arts.

“It’s such an important part of our civic conscience, and for anyone and everyone, it needs to be there.

“So I would say that we have a really firm foundation now upon which to build over the coming years.”

Last year, Benedetti said “the toughest battle of all” is innovating while at the same time preserving tradition at the festival.

Asked if this year’s event has managed to strike the balance, she said: “I think we have struck a good balance every single year, given the swirl of what’s going on artistically around the world.

“We have to look at the quality of what’s there and then do a sort of jigsaw puzzle with that perfect balance that we want to see of the new, daring, for the audiences that are willing to trust us and just try something versus those who want to see an outstanding international level of excellence of art performed on our stages.”

Tickets are available to buy online from March 27, with free entry available for a range of people, including those with a disability.

Early bird tickets are also available to Edinburgh International Festival members.