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| Evening light high street |
Arts as hope – as Truth, connection, liberal thought, new horizons.
I travelled on warm sunny days and with high anticipation for new inspirations. The high street was extra buzzing with the festival crowds – as was the station!
**The festivals theme for 2025 was THE TRUTH WE SEEK**
Its about searching for truth – to remind the world of the role of culture and the arts. And of the Freedoms needed to Create.
The Festival Fringe began in the 80s, to compliment the main international festival and to offer platforms for all kinds of artists. The Fringe festival is the place to be seen, and to get exposure.
This year with 400 shows, 1.2 million in ticket sales, thousands of visitors and with provocative bold shows. To question yourself. From the mainstream musicals shows, the ever popular comedy, to experimental new work. There are questions over who is investing and the domination of the big venues?
*AWARD, Fringe First Scotsman, good drama - Jean Frank, "Eat the Rich, Maybe not your Mates!"
There are classy performances on the main EIF stages. I went to several challenging EIBF talks on film, politics, and poetry.
This year I attended the excellent ‘Make it Happen’ with Dundee Rep and Brian Cox at the Festival theatre: the Festival Chorus performed an overwhelming Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the Usher Hall. Palestinian festival at Portobello. All that joy of IN PERSON events.
**QUOTES from the festival:
*Search for the Truth rather than impartiality” Joyce Macmillan, Scotsman 15th August, BBC impartiality risks being complicit in the spread of misinformation
“Brexit, Trump, Gaza, have all made journalists impartiality a barrier to uncovering the truth.”
Nicola Sturgeon, Fearful of the rise of the far right during a chat at EIBF with journalist Kirsty Wark
Brian Cox, We need good people.
Kate Dickie, “I love England as a neighbour, but if you’re roof is leaking, you don’t ask your neighbour to fix it.” Tariq Ali, fighting the empire.
*Richard Demarco - “Reform is a danger to the Edinburgh Festivals”, he claims.
The rise of the Far Right is trying to shut down freedom of thought for creativity. How much does the media reflect truth today, and not simply Soundbites and Clickbaits - and the lack of informed debate. How is impartiality possible when one side peddle obvious lies.
* Martin Roche writes, “‘They fear the author, writer, poet, dancer, playwright, composer, musician, and great performer – because great art requires freedom. Where culture is dictated by strong men, it is produced not by free minds but by people in fear.”
Encourage the global majority, There is healthy competiveness, but also questions around whether the festival has become too much a flashy theme park, dominated by the big venues and expensive shows? Next year will be Edinburgh’s 80th one!
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| Crowds high street |
**Demarco’s Festival of Thought
Freedom to find truth
Freedom to Create
Scottish Festival cultural icon, Richard Demarco calls for “a Festival of Thought”
to help save liberal democracy and with no politicians.
“..to bring to the city the world’s finest liberal thinkers from the humanities, from the Arts and culture, from all the sciences and technologies. “There should be no separation between science and the Arts. Leonardo Da Vinci, perhaps the greatest artist ever to live, was a great scientist, an engineer and artist.”…..Edinburgh’s history as the home of the Scottish Enlightenment. He envisages a flowering of ideas and, eventually, a new kind of university of all the disciplines and all the talents.”
Demarco calls for his friend Robert Sturus to come of Scotland for the EIFs 80the birthday. Sturus is Director of Rustaveli State Theatre of Georgia and he brought Shakespeare’s Richard II to Edinburgh. Political debate today is thin, ill-informed and ignorant and uses “immigration” as a scapegoat from the real failings that are facing us – the cost of living, the widening inequalities, the rich elites getting ever richer. Economist Richard Murphy, claims the neoliberal economic policies are failing us, pretending there can be uniformity across the board…….
An academic from Dublin suggests that “America should never have united, under its centralised control.” The Maga movement for instance, appears to be culture wars between the extreme left and the extreme right. And the toxic online culture, which can’t differentiate between healthy debate and saying I dislike you, because of your views……Trump attempts to shut down free debate and take control of hugely respected American universities. Could we trust Putin or Trump to allow unfettered publishing of poetry or novels? Trump marginalizes the media over anyone who challenges him. And tells the Smithsonian museum how to tell the 'American story'.
All Nationalisms are different. By contrast Scots Nationalism is about our self determination, and according to political theory expert Tom Nairn, Scotland’s nationalism is unique – as Scotland jumped ahead to a modern state 1700s. By contrast European states moved to a modern state 1800s, due to the uneven nature of capitalism. We should find out what unites us, what we have in common rather than what divides us.
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| Evening crowds Edina High street |
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