Thursday, 18 July 2013

Not just Edinburgh... the moral heart of Festival

EDINBURGH's annual Festival of Spirituality and Peace has been relaunched in 2013 as Just Festival, comprising 129 events across 450 performances in 28 different venues.

The relaunch happened at St John's Church in Scotland's capital on 18 June 2013. Though the events happen from 2-26 August in Edinburgh, the style, remit and scope of the Festival is far wider – global, in fact.

Among the many cultural highlights this year there will be live music from Chile's Tejas Verdes, music and dance from Afriva Entsha, topical conversations, film screenings, exhibitions, family events and Edinburgh's first Death Café (would you like that death tall, grande or venti?).

The renaming of the festival, says The List magazine, marks a shift away from emphasising the absence of conflict and towards a more active engagement with justice and compassion.

Edinburgh Spotlight comments: "It would be unfair to suggest that Edinburgh’s other festivals shy away from moral, political and social issues. However, by curating a series of events and performances which both celebrate and highlight the importance of the world’s cultural and ethical diversity, the Just Festival could perhaps be described as the festival season’s compassionate heart."

Just Festival is being supported and sponsored by the Scottish Government, the European Parliament, the University of Edinburgh, the Scottish Episcopal Church, Ekklesia, Edinburgh City Centre Churches Together (ecumenical), Edinburgh Inter Faith Association, and the main venue, St John's Church.

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