After-hours event planned at Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle by night. Picture: Stephen Finn

Knight at the Castle, which will be staged in October, will see Edinburgh’s most celebrated landmark host a special event created by and for young adults, featuring live performers, themed food and drink, and hands-on activities.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival will search for a filmmaker of the future, while young people will create new events, including Q&As, interviews, debates and workshops, for the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

A £2 million programme has been developed for the Year of Young People, an initiative instigated by the Scottish Government to put eight to 26-year-olds centre stage throughout 2018.

A team of young ambassadors has joined forces with national agency EventScotland and nearly 40 festival and event organisers to  create the line-up. The 12-month programme gets under way on December 30 with a fire parade curtain-raiser for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations.

A nationwide search is already under way for a single word that sums up Scotland. Thousands of young people will get the chance to vote for the image that will be formed at the climax of the fire parade which acts as the curtain-raiser for the city’s festivities.

The events programme will see young people join forces with the National Theatre of Scotland to create a country-wide festival of new work. Young people will help design and plan the opening of Dundee’s V&A Museum, stage a take-over of the Georgian house that inspired JM Barrie to write Peter Pan and enter a “school of stand-up at Glasgow’s annual comedy festival.

The Royal National Mod, Glasgow Comic Con, Taste of Grampian, the Orkney International Science Festival and the Findhorn Bay Arts Festival are staging special initiatives.

Paul Bush, chief executive of EventScotland, said: “The programme will further reinforce Scotland’s position as the perfect stage for events, putting young people in the driving seat and giving them a wonderful opportunity to show the world what they’re made of.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “The Year of Young People will give young people a new platform and new opportunities for their voices to be heard in all parts of our society and hopefully help to foster a better understanding, co-operation and respect between generations.”

Louise Macdonald, chief executive of Young Scot, added: “The events programme for the Year of Young People 2018 is looking phenomenal.

Thanks to the support of EventScotland and all the young people involved in deciding the programme, it’s clear it’s been created with young people at its heart. There are so many different opportunities in 2018, right across the country, to celebrate young people, develop their interests, put power into their hands and bring different  generations together.”