“Where to Begin” is a new type of Opening Event for Edinburgh International Festival, designed to tell the story of the creative power of Edinburgh, and encourage the audience to join the festivities – “a ritual to ignite your Festival”.
Located in the grounds of George Heriot’s School, attendees were vaguely directed to walk through intriguing installations lit by hundreds of fiery torches – powered by “coal, wood and a little bit of magic”, which held up valiantly against some typically Edinburgh side winds. The installations were themed around the production of whisky and the various elements that contribute to the creation process.
There was limited information available about the intended route, perhaps in the name of self-discovery, and as the actors weren’t mic’d up, it was difficult to catch the narration of each installation. However, as we progressed, we were close to the blessing of the barley, and the description of the “Angel’s Share” – the volume of whisky that evaporates during the ageing process, into the air. At this point, the actor encouraged us to head towards the back of the school, to give us the best view – for what, we were still unsure, but we headed round to the back of the school, and where a huge crowd was congregating on the playground. Lights flickered overhead, mimicking clouds racing across a skyline, accompanied by music. We were left unsure about where we should be focusing but as most people were looking at the back of the imposing school building, we followed suit.
The main projection event then took place – a breathtaking work of illusion, set to music, appearing against the school. A combination of graphic elements, playing with the stonework of the building and twisting brickwork, through to drone footage of Edinburgh, racing over and around familiar landmarks. A pleasant Scottish baritone voiceover guiding through the history of the city, created of lava and carved by ice. Describing it as a “thin place” – where reality meets another plane, the animated spark of inspiration raved through various rocks and caverns underneath the city, before imploring us to begin our adventure with a deep breath. The projection ended with actors appearing with torches lit, and a choir supplementing the increasingly dramatic soundtrack, to great applause from the crowd.
Although utterly spectacular, and clearly a huge volume of work had gone into the creation of the projection, the drone footage of Edinburgh, the animations, the underlying message seemed a bit lost. Once the projection ended, that was it, leaving a huge crowd standing in the dark, in a school playground. There was no announcement or apparent indication that the event had ended, and felt a bit of a flat way to finish, after such a impressive display.
As an aside, the choir that appeared during the finale weren’t formally introduced, and I had to hunt in the extended credits to find out who they were, as well as the actors in the installation pieces – it would be nicer of EIF to acknowledge performers and technical credits more prominently on the main event page.
Unusually for a launch event, there were no speeches by patrons, or descriptions of the various performances at the Edinburgh International Festival, which might have provided more of a natural conclusion for attendees. As the Tattoo fireworks started as we were filing out, it did feel a little anticlimactic.
This was certainly a unique and ambitious event, and worth seeing if it’s to become an annual opener – with a few tweaks to correct the imbalance of style over substance, and bit more direction for the audience, it would be unmissable.