THE Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) opened last weekend, with fantastic performances and an energy which was very refreshing. In her first year as festival director, Nicola Benedetti has taken as her theme from Martin Luther King Junior’s last book Where do we go from Here: Chaos or Community?

The Hub, the building at the top of the Royal Mile by Edinburgh Castle, where the staff team is based and which was traditionally a festival hub, is open to the public, with a range of free (ticketed) events and evening performances. The opening night there, on Sunday August 6, brought some of those musicians together in warm and high-spirited performances, joined at various points by Benedetti.

Benedetti also played earlier that afternoon, with the Grit Orchestra, a unique ensemble which brings together leading jazz, folk and classical musicians, played in the Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens for all to hear — in collaboration with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the performance was well received.