New Edinburgh International Festival director: Scene set for Nicola Benedetti to lead a new cultural revolution in Edinburgh – Brian Ferguson

Fireworks have been a notable absence from Edinburgh’s historic skyline for the last couple of years.

But the unveiling of Nicola Benedetti as the new director of the International Festival was certainly a firecracker of an announcement to signal the start of a new era for the city’s cultural life.

Everyone involved in Edinburgh’s arts festivals, events and venues has had a bruising couple of years battling with the impact of the pandemic.

Recovery may still feel a long way off for many of them, given how recently restrictions imposed just before Christmas were lifted and the lingering anxiety many people still have about returning to live events.

But the unveiling of Benedetti in the most high-profile cultural job in the city is a huge boost for the extensive efforts well underway to revive the festivals and underline Edinburgh’s credentials as a global capital of culture.

There is no doubt the EIF has delivered a major surprise with the news of its successor to Irishman Fergus Linehan, who will oversee his last programme this summer after an eight-year tenure.

Benedetti’s name was notably absent from the usual flurry of speculation that keeps followers of the Edinburgh festivals gossiping ahead of a big appointment.

But that is more to do with the fact that she has a famously hectic touring schedule and was not obviously on the look-out for such a role.

Nicola Benedetti will take over as director of the Edinburgh International Festival in October.

However, with the benefit of hindsight, there were plenty of clues that she was forging a deeper and more meaningful relationship with both the EIF and city itself.

Benedetti has provided crucial backing for projects to refurbish the Queen’s Hall and create Edinburgh’s first new concert hall for a century off St Andrew Square.

Her own foundation is a key player in plans to transform the former Royal High School on Calton Hill into a new National Centre for Music, while Sistema Scotland, the music education charity she has been involved with for years is about to expand to Wester Hailes.

The prospect of Benedetti’s influence and drive helping to join up the dots with these projects – some of which have been discussed for decade – is tantalising enough.

Expanding the EIF’s work with schools and young people would seem an obvious priority for Benedetti, one of the most passionate advocates in Scotland for the life-changing difference that arts and culture can make at an early age.

However, it is the shape and flavour of Benedetti’s programming, and the team she assembles around her, that will be on the minds of the festival’s army of followers, in Edinburgh and beyond, as the dust settles on the EIF’s announcement.

While there may be inevitable questions over the festival appointing a new director who has not programmed a major event before, the relationships she has formed and her experiences around the world over the last two decades would appear to be priceless.

The fact she is one of the EIF’s youngest ever directors, and both the first woman and the first Scot in the role, is rightly winning the EIF plaudits.

With Benedetti’s appointment confirmed ahead of the 75th anniversary season of Edinburgh’s summer festivals, the scene is already set for her to lead a new cultural revolution in the city.