Hh6 — Chaos & Community: Edinburgh International Festival

INTERVIEW | CEO Francesca Hegyi on curating an international experience for a local audience

WORDS BY DEREK MANDERSON | Edinburgh

AAADT Members, Edinburgh International Festival 2023 Photo © Dario Calmese

It has been said that Edinburgh doubles in population during August due to the heavy influx of visitors generated by the city’s famous festival season. The truth behind this claim is up for some demographic debate, but it paints a compelling picture of the mass gathering, which overtakes Scotland’s capital annually. The Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) has been a staple of this rich site of cultural exchange, drawing prominent artists from across the globe since 1947. With a spotlight on dance, music, opera, and theatre, the EIF fosters a one-of-a-kind atmosphere for experiencing the best of global performance.

At the helm of the organisation is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Francesca Hegyi. Having worked in arts and culture for over 25 years, Hegyi’s career has seen her take on various roles across the sector. Notably, she was awarded an Order of the British Empire for her work as the Executive Director of the Hull 2017 UK City of Culture, a project responsible for 2,800 events over the span of 365 days. Hegyi initially joined the Edinburgh International Festival as the Executive Director in 2019 before taking on the position of CEO in 2022.

Francesca Hegyi

Her first order of business was supporting Festival Director Nicola Benedetti’s vision for 2023, inspired by Martin Luther King Jr’s Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? In response to King’s final book, the festival programme addressed three distinct themes: community over chaos, hope in the face of adversity, and openness to a perspective that’s not one’s own. In conversation with Cannopy Magazine, Hegyi reflects on last year’s festival and discusses the affordances of communal gathering in our increasingly siloed world of personal algorithms.