The jury is still out on Jonathan Mills the new Festival director, your editorial claims my article in the Scotsman suggesting it was over thematic has been proved wrong.Yet the evidence for this position is weak.Your own chief drama critic Joyce Macmillan expressed her concerns over the experimental nature of the Festival drama.Many festival goers and quite a few critics have found the opera programme disappointing, one critic called it limp.Your own chief music critic found the opening and closing concert weak.As for increased takings yes this may be true but since prices were increased this year does this reflect a greater attendance or greater revenue?You report that one in three shows were sold out but this means that 2 out of 3 were not sold out and indeed some of them were very empty indeed.
Of course there were many highlights to savour, as always the morning concerts at the Queens Hall were a joy.The visit of the Mariinsky Opera and Valery Gergiev was a high point and I congratulated Jonathan Mills for getting them this year and hope we can get them back.There many superb concerts at the Usher Hall and let us hope it really is finished for next year.I think Norman Lebrecht was as usual over the top in his article on the Festival however his doubts over the suitability of the Festival director are not isolated in Edinburgh.Of course I still enormously enjoyed the Festival and was moved to create an online forum the EAR (Edinburgh Audience Review) available at http://thear2008.wordpress.com so that we the audience who pay for our tickets can debate with the critics who do not.So far over one thousand people have visited the site and I invite your readers to participate in the debate.Of course Edinburgh will survive Mr Mills and his themes, it is the greatest arts festival in the world in the most beautiful city in the world.On Saturday I met an English woman who has just moved to Edinburgh and enjoyed her first festival she said “what I want to know is, why everyone doesnt want to move to Edinburgh it is just wonderful”
Hugh Kerr editor the EAR
