08 Jan 2017, 06:06 pm
![Bollywood is huge connection, Indian new wave welcome: Festivals Edinburgh Director Bollywood is huge connection, Indian new wave welcome: Festivals Edinburgh Director](https://www.notintown.net/old/interview_pic/2016/1-1461821655.jpg)
Excerpts of an interview:
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See, Edinburgh festivals are now almost 70 years old. The first festival was held in 1947 - it was postwar world [spirits were low with the impact of war still lingering]- and since then the focus was to find a vision of internationalism, to reach out to people, to curate a festival to build a better future and a "flowering of human spirit". In the very first year the festival was born we had Austrian orchestra here. And now here we are. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world and takes place every August for three weeks. We are guided by internationalism and we offer a huge diversity, exploring the world and different art forms. The filmmakers too came forward to start the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1947 and it is the world's longest continually-running film festival. So we have a year-round eco-system of festivals, one of the best examples in the world. It starts with the science festival (Edinburgh International Science Festival, where 2016 is the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design), followed by others, including The Scottish International Storytelling Festival (which is actually the Halloween that originally began in Scotland in the ancient Celtic traditions of story telling) and Hogmanay (Scottish New Year) in mid winter (it dates back to the celebration of the winter solstice among the Vikings with wild parties in late December.)
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We reinvent ourselves every year. We even have launched a mobile apps now. It is like a living laboratory. The focus is on building a better world or an urban planet of imaginary new world. So art and science come together and we have over four million visitors year round for six different festivals. It is much like Olympic Games. The city's population doubles in August every year. At least 36 percent visitors are from outside the UK, with many coming from France and Germany. India and China are our fastest growing markets too. We are also focusing on the "Thundering Hooves 2.0" study (published on 21 May 2015) which is an ambitious new strategy with a series of recommendations to sustain and strengthen Edinburgh’s status as the world’s leading festival city and be ahead of the pack. (Thundering Hooves - metaphorically named after the sound of the competition catching up with Edinburgh - is the title given to a series of strategic reports since past ten years aimed at sustaining and developing Edinburgh's position as the world's leading festival city. All such reports were commissioned by the Festivals Forum.)
Yes, we work with people like Sanjoy Roy (the man behind the Jaipur Literature Festival). We had a Bollywood Love Story last year at Edinburgh Mela Festival in collaboration with the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (which is an annual series of Military tattoos performed by British Armed Forces, Commonwealth and International military bands on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle). Bollywood dancers came last year and it was an amazing piece. We feel very lucky. It was a visual treat to have dancers from India and Scotland perform together. Bollywood is a huge connection. But in future besides Bollywood or films of someone like Satyajit Ray, we would also like to have films from Indian new wave in the film festival here.
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We have Rabindranath Tagore connection too with the festival. And you may know that Tagore had a great friend in Sir Patrick Geddes (who was a botanist, ecologist, sociologist and town planner from Scotland). Patrick (who is often hailed as one of the founders of modern town planning) worked in India with Tagore. (Notably, to research and celebrate Rabindranath Tagore’s life, works and impact, The Scottish Centre for Tagore Studies or ScoTs was established by Edinburgh Napier University’s Institute of Creative Industries in collaboration with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in Nov 2011.)
What is the theme for 2017?
If this year it is "Building Better World", next year would be "Our Connected World” so far the science festival is concerned. We will focus on conflict and degradation and in all we want to tell what kind of world we want to share.
- I am a big fan of volcanoes: Actor Abhishek Singh
- Wajid Ali Shah brought to Kolkata from Lucknow the dum pukht style of cooking: Sunita Kohli
- I try to immerse myself in culture of every country I visit: Chef Ben Ungermann
- I have been very fond of nature: Arijit Dutta
- You travel till you breathe: Actor Saswata Chatterjee
- Our USP is definitely our Wellness teas: Karma Kettle owners
- Our involvement with the Indigenous people is superb: Ontario Tourism Minister
- "Cotentin is completely different from the image the world currently has of Normandy"
- You can travel indefinitely for USD200 a month: Alex
- Five days are required to grant visas now: India's Consul General in Toronto
New Delhi : Air India Express, a subsidiary of Air India and a part of the Tata group, has launched its "Time to Travel" sale on the airline’s website, airindiaexpress.com, the Air India Express mobile app and other major booking channels.
Tokyo: Airlines were forced to cancel over 300 flights following the collision between a Japan Coast Guard aircraft and a Japan Airlines passenger plane at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Tuesday evening even as reports said the plane was cleared to land ahead of the tragedy.
New Delhi/NITN: Regular flyers on Jazeera Airways, Kuwait’s low-cost carrier, can now avail a host of discounts and benefits by enrolling for the new membership club introduced by the airline, recently.