Children’s festival to take place with full live programme

A children’s festival will take place with a fully live programme in Edinburgh after two years of disruption due to the pandemic.

The Edinburgh International Children’s Festival will offer a mixture of art forms, including circus for babies, acrobatic painting, classical music fused with theatre, and productions that incorporate video projections and soundtracks.

The programme for the festival in May will include national and international productions with a focus on Flanders in Belgium, a region known for its innovative work for young people.

The 2020 festival was completely cancelled due to the pandemic and took place mainly online last year, though there were some outdoor events at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.

Festival director Noel Jordan said: “We are delighted to be presenting a live festival for 2022 with a varied programme of Scottish and European performances.

“This year’s Festival is full of special moments for children and their families – experiences that will enable young people to reconnect and encourage them to wish, desire and aspire beyond their own lives and immediate neighbourhoods, into their potential future selves.

“Communal connectedness is crucial in the lives of children and young people and never more timely than this current period in our history.”

While there are productions for a range of different age groups, there are common themes that will touch on the experiences children are dealing with during the pandemic.

Many productions explore isolation, touch and human connection, while the theme of mental health and peer pressure also features strongly throughout the programme.

Two new Scottish commissions feature on the line-up, one of which – the play I am Tiger, by Oliver Emanuel – tells the story of a girl who is given a pet tiger by her parents following the death by suicide of her big brother.

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The other, The Hope River Girls, by groupwork, tells the story of 24 schoolgirls who start behaving strangely and come under intense media scrutiny.

Other shows include WhirlyGig, a musical adventure with four musicians attempting to play 30 instruments, and Little Murmur, about the trials and tribulations of living with dyslexia.

The festival will open on Saturday May 7 with Family Encounters, a day of free performances and arts activities at the National Museum of Scotland featuring a range of Scotland-based artists.

The day will also feature a New Stories strand supported by The Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Funds.

This year’s festival runs from May 7 to 15.

Culture Minister Neil Gray MSP said: “We’re delighted to support the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival’s fantastic line up of fully live events this year with £115,000 from the Festivals Expo Fund.

“The Festival has a well-deserved reputation for showcasing the very best in children’s theatre and dance productions from around the world.

“It’s important that children of all ages have the opportunity to experience these national and international multi-artform productions which can ignite their imaginations and creativity and contribute to their well-being.”

Festival tickets are on sale now and all programme and booking information can be found at www.imaginate.org.uk/festival.