“I wouldn’t say we’ve trans-
formed the festival,” he said. “We have broadened it, perhaps. But at its core is the highest level of quality – that’s what it is all about. We’re always conscious of where we sit in terms of the whole ecosystem of the festival – and part of the attrac- tion of Edinburgh is that you have everything from high school kids performing a musical to a recital by the greatest pianist in the world. We want to keep that scope and level of quality, but at the same time we’re conscious of broadening what we do while speaking to a larger audi- ence.
“Classical music is what we do
at EIF and it’s important in the overall offering that you have the most virtuosic performances in the world. Troughout history classical music has been at the core of EIF, but people’s tastes have become really diverse. Just because someone likes a Mozart symphony, it doesn’t mean that’s all they like. Because of Spotify and the like people listen to music differently nowadays – it’s more immediate, so it’s important to reflect that.”
NATURALLY, FORWARD planning is essential in order to secure the best
acts; even before this year’s extrava- ganza got underway Linehan was busy working on line-up schedules for as far ahead as 2019. “In terms of when to approach
performers it very much depends on which area of the programme you’re focusing on,” he said. “For example, opera planning has to be done way in advance. At the moment we’re in the process of approaching companies we’d like to book for as far ahead as our 2019 programme. At the same time, we’re also beginning to look for popular music acts for next year. And the very last thing we do is cast
the theatre. We have to be ready to launch everything in March.” He added: “How we go about
finding performers is quite varied. We keep a longlist of people who we’d like to approach, and we keep in contact with a very long list of arts people, but sometimes we’ll spot something when we’re travel- ling around – something so amaz- ing that we have to snap it up then and there. Other acts are dictated by the venue and this is something we have to bear in mind. Te Play- house, for instance, has 3,000 seats,
Continued on page 17 ➜ EVENTSBASE | AUTUMN 2016 | 15
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