EDINBURGH certainly likes to celebrate the end of the festival season with a bang, as hundreds of thousands of fireworks lit up the castle last night.
It is the largest annual fireworks concert in the world, with more than 400,000 fireworks shooting up into the sky, choreographed to live orchestral music from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Kristiina Poska.
The Virgin Money Fireworks Concert, which provides the finale to the Edinburgh International Festival, commemorated 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare with excerpts from Romeo And Juliet and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.
Setting up the event is no mean feat, with a team of 15 people taking six days to lay out the whopping four tonnes of fireworks. It marks the end of Edinburgh International Festival, the Festival Fringe, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh International Television Festival and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo which all happened in August making the city a hive of activity with 50,266 performances over 25 days.
VIDEO: Watch breathtaking footage from a drone flying through a fireworks display – click here to read more
Almost 2.5 million tickets have been issued for 50,266 Fringe events, an increase of 7.7% on last year, while the Edinburgh International Festival has generated £4 million in ticket sales, surpassing last year’s record.
This year marked Shona McCarthy’s first as chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe society. “The Fringe plays an essential role in the global arts community, providing a platform for artists from around the UK and the rest of the world to showcase their work and make new connections. With 48 countries represented in this year’s programme, the breadth and diversity of talent on offer has been astounding,” she said.
Festival director Fergus Linehan, said: “At the end of three incredible weeks, all that remains is for us to thank the hundreds of artists and hundreds of thousands of audience members who continue to make the Edinburgh International Festival one of the wonders of the arts world.
“The International Festival has always been a place for people of all nationalities to meet and exchange ideas and we’ve seen that everywhere across the city these past three weeks.
“In uncertain times, events like this feel ever more important, and we at the International Festival are honoured to have been able to host, inspire, entertain and moreover welcome so many artists and visitors from all over the world to our city.”
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