Nicola Benedetti warns of cuts to Edinburgh Festival after SNP ministers depart funding in limbo | EUROtoday

Her warning got here because the pageant introduced that its theme subsequent 12 months can be “The Truth We Seek”, inviting audiences to discover reality in all its kinds.

Performances embody Mary, Queen of Scots, a world premiere from Scottish Ballet, an Australian reimagining of opera Orpheus and Eurydice that includes acrobatics, and Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra 2 of their first-ever European tour.

Casting for the Mary, Queen of Scots ballet will embody female and male dancers taking over a number of gender “fluid and intergenerational” roles.

But Francesca Hegyi, the EIF chief govt, warned in August that the EIF was having to “plan for the worst” for 2025 and past resulting from an absence of readability over its public funding.

The pageant has obtained about £2.5 million from the Scottish Government lately and had anticipated to get a choice from the quango Creative Scotland final month on its funding for the subsequent three years.

But it’s no longer anticipated to get a choice till the top of January, following the Scottish Budget on Dec 4, lower than two months earlier than its programme launch.