New festival director for Edinburgh International Festival

Edinburgh International Festival has revealed that Fergus Linehan has been appointed festival director.

Linehan will begin the post on a part-time basis on May 1, 2013, and will become festival director and chief executive of the festival full time from October 1, 2014.

Linehan, who previously developed Dublin Theatre Festival and Sydney Festival, is currently festival director of Vivid Live, and works with with a number of international arts companies and Government agencies including the Sydney Opera House where he is reviewing theatre and dance programming and Dublin City Council.

Fergus Linehan, director designate of the Edinburgh International Festival, said of his appointment: ‘I am delighted and deeply honoured to have been appointed as the next director of the Edinburgh International Festival. I look forward to safeguarding the founding principles of the festival in ways which are engaging and relevant to all. In particular I look forward to moving to Edinburgh to serve the devoted festivalgoers and artists from Scotland and around the world, who have grown to love this wonderful institution over the past seven decades.

“Successful festivals respond to both place and provenance to create a unique identity and this is particularly true of Edinburgh, the preeminent festival city. It is with this in mind that I will begin the exciting work of developing my plans and ideas for the 2015 and future Festivals.’

Linehan will start now to plan and programme the 2015 Edinburgh International Festival, taking up the role of festival director full-time on October 1, 2014. Linehan will move to Edinburgh to take up the post, the initial period of which covers five festivals from 2015 to 2019.