The Edinburgh International Festival has announced the first details of next year’s programme, which will be the third edition curated by Festival Director Nicola Benedetti.

In 2025, we are told, the EIF will “invite audiences to examine their relationship with truth through a curated programme of music, dance, theatre and opera”. Expanding on that theme, the festival says, “the pursuit of truth is an essential part of being human, but today this search for meaning is precarious, fractured and abused”.

“Through the lens of this year’s theme The Truth We Seek”, it goes on, “the International Festival presents contemporary reflections on the world alongside time-honoured tales, a place where fact meets faith and fiction”.

In terms of the specifics, among the first EIF 2025 productions and performances to be announced is a brand new narrative ballet from Scottish Ballet telling the story of Mary, Queen Of Scots, and the European production premiere of ‘Orpheus And Eurydice’, a modern reworking of Gluck’s 18th Century opera also featuring acrobatic artistry from Australian circus company Circa.

The festival has also announced a new three-year creative partnership with New York’s Carnegie Hall and its national youth ensembles. In 2025, the venue’s National Youth Orchestra 2 will perform at the festival as part of their first-ever European tour.

Says Benedetti, “To be alive is to know the elusive nature of truth. Within our homes or workplaces, amongst loved ones or colleagues, we all experience trying to piece together indignantly expressed, absolutely believed, yet utterly contradictory truths. How often are we able to rise above our own bubble?”

“From the weaving of myth and enduring truths in a bold reimagining of ‘Orpheus And Eurydice’, to reconciling rival perspectives in Scottish Ballet’s ’Mary, Queen Of Scots’ or finding inspiration from the next generation of musicians with Carnegie Hall’s incredible National Youth Orchestra 2, we invite you to join us for our 2025 Festival: The Truth We Seek”.