Images Edinburgh festival 2026

I’ve been making the journeys over to Edinburgh festivals the past twenty years. August is Edinburgh festival – art, music, theatre, books, comedy, dance, opera – all the arts interplay and overlap together to make this unique melting pot of what makes art special in our lives, lifts us up and why art matters. I’ve taken photos at the Fringe and the book festival.

There’s the official International festival which this year is titled ALL RISE, to celebrate the links to America and the 250 years since America’s Declaration if independence. 

The Edinburgh International Festival 2026 – 7-30 August 2026

“I am, All Rise.. look further, look beyond, can’t you see - look higher. I’m going to rise and rise.’

World-class Opera, Music, Theatre and Dance over 24 days and 147 performances. With 5 world premieres, and 10 works commissioned by the Festival. All Rise is a rallying cry encompassing collaboration, resilience and ascendance. To experience themes of freedom, ingenuity, prejudice, and hypocrisy, alongside the creative achievements made possible by the friction and energy of America's cultural melting pot. 

Nicola Benedetti - I fell in love with U S of A. instantly. I was 16 years old and within 24 hours my relationship to its “wild, abrasive, exuberant, heart filled yet harsh ferocity was sealed. I was shocked and intoxicated.”

 

There’s the International Edinburgh book festival at the Futures institute, August 15 to 30,

with 600 writers from 41 different countries. of fiction, politics, science, history, music and live performances. 150 events for families, and young adults. The theme 2026, "Changing Your Mind", to encourage visitors to "stay open and curious, championing deep listening and celebrating our capacity to evolve our thinking".  Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, "How to lead a country" along with former Finnish PM Sanna Marin, memoirs, Frankly and Hope in Action. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and technology writer Cory Doctorow. Leading writers - John Grisham, Ian Rankin, Maggie O'Farrell, Ali Smith, Jenni Fagan, Matt Haig and 2026 International Booker Prize winner Yáng Shuāng-z(Image: D

With a focus on trust and information, with conversations with journalists, researchers examining misinformation, and global narratives. Plus the rapid growth of AI and its regulation, with Steve Crossan, original DeepMind team, and Sarah Wynn-Williams, former director of public policy at Facebook.

There’s the Edinburgh FRINGE festival – with over 4,000 shows, performers from all across the world. Its comedy festival is a a major attraction. Edinburgh festival was one of the first major arts festivals begun after the second world war. Edinburgh festival was one of the first major arts festivals begun after the second world war In 1947, the founding vision was to reunite people through art. People overcame the post-war darkness, division and austerity in a blooming of festival spirit. In the 1970s with only a few hundred shows.

Burns Poetry and Song

 

Burns poetry and Song have become a symbolic touchstone of Scottish identity for generations, The Patriot Bard, by Patrick Scott Hogg

In the age of enlightenment Burns believed in the power of reason and common sense. When there was a crackdown on democratic reform. The Jacobite cause was symbolic of the country’s lost, romantic past. 

 

The tyrannical oppression of the Pitt government brought the enlightenment movement to its knees and silenced the leading minds of a generation. Burns risked his life and freedom to continue composing such radical material of social satire during his last few years. He published anonymously Scots Wa Hae as he considered it too seditious.

 

William Pitt (1759 –1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and the first official Prime minister of the UK from January 1801. 

He left office in March 1801, but served as prime minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806. He is known as "Pitt the Younger" to distinguish him from his father, William Pitt the Elder, who had also previously served as prime minister from 1766–1768.

Pitt's premierships, during the reign of King George III were dominated by major political events in Europe, including the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Pitt, is often referred to by historians as a Tory or "new Tory", and called himself an "independent Whig and was generally opposed to the development of a strict partisan political system. Pitt was regarded as a good administrator who worked for efficiency. He increased taxes to pay for the great war against France and cracked down on radicalism. To counter the threat of Irish support for France, he engineered the Acts of Union 1800. 

 

The Glenriddell Manuscripts

 

Libraries were to give access to all – The Glenriddell Manuscripts helped to set up the National Library of Scotland 1926. 

The Manuscripts were written to preserve Robert Burns’s chosen poems and letters, illuminating his creative process. Compiled between 1789 and 1793. 

Two Volumes – One of Poems and Songs. The Second Burns Letters. Such a Holy Willies prayer with explanations. Some are the only surviving manuscripts of some poems. They are held in the National Library of Scotland since its founding in 1925, 

 

The manuscripts are not merely important for their link to Burns and their contents, although this is undoubtedly a major part of their appeal. They are also intrinsically linked to the foundation and establishment of the Library itself and are here, in part, because there was a national library in Scotland in which to hold them.

 

The Glenriddell Manuscripts are one of the most significant collections of original Robert Burns material to be found anywhere in the world. They are considered one of the greatest treasures held by the National Library of Scotland. The manuscripts are important for their link to Burns and are also linked to the establishment of the Library.

 

Burns's comments on his poetry and prose offer a unique record of his earlier work, with insights into the poet's thought process for their composition and execution. Burns provided insights into his letters and as he often wrote a covering headnote with details about their contents or why he decided to include them in the volume.

Following Burns death, they went on an extraordinary journey before returning to Scotland. (Ralph McLean, manuscripts curator collections at the National Library of Scotland).

The two volumes stayed with the Burns family until his widow, Jean, loaned them to Burns's first biographer, James Currie, so that he could produce his edition of 'The Works of Robert Burns'.

 

Journey to the National Library of Scotland

Currie should to have returned the Glenriddell Manuscripts to Jean upon publication, but instead he kept them for himself. They passed through his family until his daughter-in-law presented them to the Liverpool Athenaeum Club in 1853. They remained there until the Club decided to auction them off in 1913.

However John Gribbel of Philadelphia who acquired the volumes, made the remarkable gesture to give them as a gift to the people of Scotland. He intended that they should go to a national library of Scotland. As no such body existed then, it was decided that they would alternate every five years between the Mitchell Library Glasgow, and the City Chamberlain's Office Edinburgh until such time as a National library was established.

 

Following the opening of the National Library of Scotland in 1925, the manuscripts were formerly handed over to the new institution in June 1926. On learning that they had found their permanent home, Gribbel wrote "If anything were necessary to complete the satisfaction I had in sending the manuscripts to Scotland, the institution of the Library would supply it".

 

Importance of the Glenriddell Manuscripts to current collecting

In the Glenriddell Manuscripts, Burns appears not just as a poet, but as a self-editor. The two volumes of poems, songs and letters contain his reflections, how he revised and reconsidered his writing. These manuscripts capture the circumstances of how they were made, from friendship and collaboration to the breakdown that interrupted their completion.

They offer a personal way into Burns’s world, inviting readers to explore further and encounter his work as he chose to present it.

Edina, THE NEW WORLD

 

Edina Lochenbooths high st

THE NEW WORLD - Life in Edinburgh 1700s 

A city of taverns, turnpike, steps, towering apartment blocks, theatre, dancing assemblies, city chambers and strong gusts of wind. The row of towers rising from the palace to a castle on the rock- some 12 storeys high were crowded. Seen from the wide views out along the shores of the Firth of Forth there were garlands of wood and peat smoke round the town which gave rise to the name Auld Reekie. And the wynds and closes ran down to the waters of the north loch or to the Canongate. From the lawn market, the Royal mile opens out near St Giles to be wide enough for five carriages, and then narrowed down to the Canongate, down towards Holyrood palace and Arthurs seats.

 

There was the Jacobite/ Whig divide. There were 2 thrice weekly newspapers – one Whig, one Jacobite; and The Scots Magazine – full of trails, poetry, world affairs, narrative of Scots; 4 printing works, brewers, insurance, 9 Presbyterian churches. Musselburgh fish wives, sweeps, coal porters, barefoot housemaids. Women wore scarlet plaid or tartan over their heads down to their waist. There were 600 taverns, where work took place and people drank ale, claret and whisky.  There was archery for Jacobites, at Musselburgh. Golf for the Whigs at Leith links.

There was a weekly concert at St Marys chapel Cowgate. The women sang old songs and held tea parties. A well-dressed duchess appeared from a dirty close. it was the Duchess of Gordon, the leader of Edinburgh society, was once seen riding up the high street on a sow, which her sister drove with a stick!

Georgian New Town built late 1700s

The heart of Edinburgh was at St Giles cathedral since the abolition of the bishops during the Reformation – there was the new church choir, old church nave, Haddow Holes northwest corner, Tolbooth west. The General Assembly met here once a year.  

At the Luckenbooths near St Giles were shops – on the East side was the flat of poet Allan Ramsay senior who established the first library 1725 and in the ground floor flat was the printer, William Creech. And on the west side were the dark turrets of the Old Tolbooth prison. At the back of St Giles, there was the Parliament house where the Scottish Parliament sat from 1639. The Edinburgh town council sat at Parliament Close.

From Edinburgh there were 3 mail coaches to London each week. A stagecoach ran monthly to London and took 10 days on the road. There were ships to London – from the Port of Leith. Edinburgh did not have the colonial trade with the Americas or a merchant class, that Glasgow had - but the town had lawyers, Court of Session, clergymen, General Assembly. 

 

There was intellectual infrastructure, reading societies, libraries, periodicals, museums and masonic lodges. The Edinburgh College (university) – William Castares, who’d been in Dutch exile before 1688 revolution. In 1708 introduced a system of professors – new chairs in Arts, Law. The Edinburgh Faculty of Medicine, founded in 1726 was the first in Britain. Jacobite printers Thomas and Walter Ruddima produced editions of Scots Renaissance writers such as George Buchannan and Gavin Douglas. They also expanded the Advocates library at Parliament House 1680 to over 2 thousand volumes. The Academy of Painting opened in 1729. The High school was one of the largest grammar schools with 400 pupils – plus 4 hospitals or boarding schools for orphans – George Heriots for boys and George Watson for girls in 1659.The Royal Infirmary was founded in 1741. 

Scottish Writers museum

Baxters Close

 

Edinburgh book festival images

 

I recall the excitement of my first times at Edinburgh book festival in Charlotte square back in 2009 – and the many famous faces I have encountered on my walk over the wooded walkways, as they left the Press yurt; it was always a surprise and the trying to act nonchalant! I met here Seamus Heaney, Brian Cox, Alex Salomnd, George RR Martin, Liz Lochhead, John Byrne, Val McDermid, Elif Shakfak, Ian Rankin, Alexander McCalll Smith, Allan Cummings, and many more!

 

The challenging light – at lunchtime, with any overhead sunshine causing far too many shadows, or the perfect late light, hitting the townhouses of the square and on Bute house. I remember George RR Martin waiting at the side gate.Or Seamus Heaney walking into the cafe.  

 

The many fun photographers I have met here – from Wales, Italy, Spain and elsewhere. The banter,

 

George RR Martin arrives

Seamus Heaney & Andrew O'Hagan

Unbound

Edna OBrien

Art has always been a big part of my life – poetry, songs, images, books. I enjoyed sketching, singing, playing piano, reading and writing in my small notebooks. I was constantly drawing; I went to visit art galleries, took art at school, wondered what makes artists great – the brilliant composer, the inspired painter, or the great poet. 

 

Art is how I imagine and visualise my references. 

Music is my main point of wonder, escape and emotional release. 

Poetry is how I make sense of the turmoil, confusion and troubles. 

And the stories we tell ourselves. 

Photographers set up Charlotte Sq

Cultural History Disconnects

I had a big disconnect between my primary school and secondary school. At primary we had Scottish dancing, Scots poetry and song. We had a headteacher from Skye, who often wore a kilt.

Then at secondary we had no Scottish history, culture or music at all. Only English literature, history and music. Quite  a strange disconnect. 

 

Then I attended college down the cobbled royal mile Edinburgh, and I wondered about all the history here – the Canongate Kirkyard, John Knox house, St Giles, Holyrood, the Grassmarket – and the castle. We used to go to the military tattoo there every year. 

 

Going to secondary school Edina, I travelled across the town by bus via Princes Street. On the top deck there were many teenagers in brightly coloured blazers who spoke with posh English accents. I wondered where they were from. In Edina around 25% of children attend private schools. 

 

No it wasn’t and isn’t an integrated melting pot at all. But a stiff social hierarchy. Back in the 60s and 70s though, young people had more options to go to study. Houses were built to offer greater social mixing – but that doesn’t always succeed. When people feel without things in common, many put up defensive barriers. 

 

Visiting Holyrood Palace I picked up a small book on the Stuart kings of Scotland. I was fascinated by the Scots history and stories. I  visited the Scottish national galleries, with their many portraits of Scottish royalty. My parents were from Northern Ireland, so I was very confused, as no doubt they were too. 

MY SONGS

 Back in the 70s I was involved with the folk revival happening in Edinburgh and around Scotland’s folk festivals. Many happy days and nights spent at Sandy Bells folk bar. Although in my youthful twenties I wasn’t aware it was a folk revival! Or of the iconic figures who were often on its benches there - Hamish Henderson or fiddler Aly Bain.

 

Now many decades later, I realise its significance, after twenty years attending and reviewing at Celtic Connections music festival in Glasgow, Europe’s major winter music festival, and from my researching and studying Scottish cultural heritage. 

 

I’ve read of the song collector and folklorist Margaret Bennet (mother of the renowned and innovative composer Martyn Bennet) and of the Scots legend Dick Gaughan, the Scottish studies school and of course the composer Hamish Henderson, who went to Sandy Bells back then. 

 

I was introduced to the Shetland fiddler Aly Bain, (Silly Wizard and Boys of the Lough) and who has been a musical director of Transatlantic Sessions since 2005, plus a founder of Celtic Connections. I was also acquainted with the highly respected songwriter Rab Noakes. We used to sing and harmonise his songs – Clear day, Branch. 

 

As a teenager I enjoyed Soul music, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, then the Stones, Mozart, Robert Burns, Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac and many others. 

Edinburgh book festival 2026 announced!

Programme for Edinburgh International Book Festival has been announced, with nearly 600 writers from 41 different countries taking part.

The renowned festival, taking place in the capital between August 15 and 30, published its full programme on Tuesday, with more than 600 events spanning fiction, politics, science, history, music and live performances. There are more than 150 events scheduled for children and families, along with a young adults programme tailored for audiences under 30.

The theme of the 2026 festival, "Changing Your Mind", may encourage visitors to "stay open and curious, championing deep listening and celebrating our capacity to evolve our thinking".

Among those to appear at the festival are former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, who will speak on a panel titled "How to lead a country" alongside former Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin, to discuss their respective memoirs, Frankly and Hope in Action. Other prominent figures to speak at the festival include former UK prime minister Gordon Brown, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and technology writer Cory Doctorow.

They will be joined by leading writers from around the world, including John Grisham, Ian Rankin, Maggie O'Farrell, Ali Smith, Jenni Fagan, Matt Haig and 2026 International Booker Prize winner Yáng Shuāng-z(Image: D

This year's programme also places focus on trust and information, featuring conversations with journalists, analysists and researchers examining misinformation, data and global narratives. The festival will also explore the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and its regulation, featuring voices such as Steve Crossan, who was part of the original DeepMind team, and Sarah Wynn-Williams, former director of public policy at Facebook.

The festival will run a schools programme to support around 5000 pupils through free tickets for those in need, along with transport and books.

Jenny Niven, director of Edinburgh international Book Festival, said: “Our theme 'Changing Your Mind' speaks to the moment we're in. At a time when opinions seem increasingly polarised and online debate is so divisive, we're creating space for thoughtful, nuanced conversations – exploring the reasons for our increasing social and political divides, and how we might change each others' minds, or at least agree to disagree, more agreeably. We're also looking at the potential of the human brain to adapt and relearn, and at the unparalleled power of stories to change our thinking."

Niven added: "Changing your mind is a lifelong process of staying open to new ideas.

"By bringing amazing speakers and curious audiences together, around knowledge and perspectives that help us challenge our assumptions and see the world differently, we hope the Festival programme this year will help us gain a deeper understanding of both ourselves and each other."

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2026 tickets

Tickets for this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival Thursday, June 25. https://www.edbookfest.co.uk   

 

Burns Love Life

 

Margaret Chambers

Burns love life is highly complex and complicated!  He wrote some of the most famous love songs ever written. He loved often. His first famous poem, written when Burns was sixteen was Westlin Winds for Peggy. 

As a teenager he fell in love often, after reading a book of French love letters given to him by mistake by his tutor John Murdoch! Burns’s first child, Elizabeth Burns was born to his mother’s servant Elizabeth Paton. 

There was the Mauchline Belles! Many years later when he was twenty two, Burns moved to Mossgiel farm near Mauchline in 1782, where he met his bonny Jean. She was a great singer and knew all the auld Scots ballads like his mother. 

At this time he also met his Highland Mary: after Jean suddenly left for Paisley. He pledged his love for her over a bible and later wrote the poems Highland Mary and To Mary in Heaven to her. Also – “Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary, And leave auld Scotia’s shore?” However Mary suddenly died in Greenock from Typhus, she had contracted from her uncle. Burns was devastated.  Machine was a crossroads town, with many travellers and walks fo life. 

Burns also greatly enjoyed educated, cultured women he met on his travels, who he felt a kinship with. First he met Margaret Chambers in Edina, a farmers daughter who was his equal in education and conversation. 

January 1787, Burns wrote to her, Dear Dr. Countrywoman. I know you will laugh at it, when I tell you that your playing and you together have played the deuce somehow, about my heart. I could sit down and cry like a child……’Personal attractions, Madam, you have much above par, Wit and understanding & worth, you possess in the first class. ‘   

 

Burns spent two more winters in Edina in 1787 and 88, and late in 1788 he met the elegant culture Agnes McLahose, his Nancy who was also well educated and a poet too.  He walked under Clarinda/ Nancy’s window. ‘tis the star that guards. My queen of poetesses empress of the poets soul. I gave her two wineglasses with the toast. ‘Long may we love, and long may we be happy.’ 

Clarinda needed the support of her uncle for her annuity. They wrote over 300 letters correspondence to each other from 1788 to 1791 – when he wrote his great song of parting for her Ae Fond Kiss. Clarinda was to leave and told Burns that he must go back to Jean, that there was not likely any future. Burns heart was broken. 

She left for the West indies.

After his Scotia travels (1786-1788) and his time in Edina having his poems published, Burns returned to Ayrshire and married Jean Armour in April 1788, when they moved to the Ellisland farm. They had three surviving sons. He wrote the poem I Love my Jean for her.  Also in 1791, Elizabeth Burns was born to Anna Park, a barmaid at the Globe Inn in 1791. Jean took her in and looked after her. 

Because of his education Burns straddled all walks of life, from the poor he met in Mauchline to the great and good of the Edina’s literati, the academics and the enlightenment writers.  

*In 1791 he was inspired to write one of the greatest love songs ever written, Red Red Rose.

O my Luve is like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June;

O my Luve is like the melody

That’s sweetly played in tune.

 

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in luve am I;

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till a’ the seas gang dry.

 

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;

I will love thee still, my dear,

While the sands o’ life shall run.

 

And fare thee weel, my only luve!

And fare thee weel awhile!

And I will come again, my luve,

Though it were ten thousand mile.

 His stay in the Edina resulted in lifelong friendships - with Lord Glencairn and Francis Dunlop (1730-1815) 

who became a mentor and sponsor and with whom he corresponded. 

*      *      *      *      

Farwell to Clarinda, the mistress of my soul,

The measured time is run

The wretch beneath the dreary pole

So marks his latest sun.

*      *      *      *      *

 

My Peggy’s face, my Peggy’s form,

The frost of hermitage might warm,

My Peggy’s worth, My Peggy’s mind,

Might charm the first of human kind,

I love my Peggy’s angel air,

Her face so truly heavenly fair,

Her nature grace so void of air,

And I do love my Peggy’s heart.   RB

 (Published 1802)

 

A Letter from Mrs Dunlop - She feared I might loose being this ‘rustic bard’ in Edina. She wrote such high praise, and told me, I was the best bard ever to have adorned my country. 

I wrote to her, ‘I have long studied myself and I think I know pretty exactly what ground I occupy, both as a man and a poet….Poets are such outré beings, so much the children of wayward Fancy and capricious Whim, that I believe the word generally allows them a larger latitude in the rules of Propriety, than the sober sons of Judgement and Prudence. ‘ 

 

I Love My Jean

Of a' the airts the wind can blaw,

I dearly like the West;

For there the bony Lassie lives,

The Lassie I lo'e best:

There's wild-woods grow,

and rivers row,

And mony a hill between;

But day and night my fancy's flight

Is ever wi' my Jean.

 

I see her in the dewy flowers,

I see her sweet and fair;

I hear her in the tunefu' birds,

I hear her charm the air:

There's not a bony flower that springs

By fountain, shaw, or green;

There's not a bony bird that sings

But minds me o' my Jean.

RB