Now in its teens, the Edinburgh International Festival had already secured its position as the city’s primary cultural event.

While far from attracting the millions of visitors it enjoys today, the late summer arts jamboree ensured a steady flow of tourism cash would pour into the Capital’s coffers each year.

As our archive pictures show, the festival, along with the ongoing construction of the Forth Road Bridge, was most definitely dominating news pages in Edinburgh in 1961.

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