This year’s opening event for the Festival was, like last year and the year before that a dynamic animated light show, shone onto some of Edinburgh’s finest architecture: this time, St Andrew Sq in the Georgian New Town.
The whole animation lasted about twenty minutes; I watched it through three times, from different vantage oints around the square. Whilst the theme in each place was thesame, there were subtle differences projected on each of the square’s sides (the east side wasn’t involved, letting the trams move unhindered).
The animation was witty, clever and very beautiful. We’re used to this by now – it didn’t seem as spectacular as 2015’s “Harmonium”, but then by now we knew what to expect. It made me proud of the city, and I think it is excellent that the Festival continues giving back such artworks to the city. The work commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Edinburgh International Festival (first held in 1947, just two years after WW2). I heard the show’s designer on a radio interview explaining that “Bloom” referred to the first festival’s aim to celebrate the “blooming of culture and the arts”. “Welcome Back”!
I took pictures on each side, shown here chronologically.
South.
West.
North.
