Edinburgh International Magic Festival

Hi folks

I thought I'd do a quick post to let as many people as possible learn about the first Edinburgh International Magic Festival. The Festival will run from 7 to 11 July 2010 at venues located around the Royal Mile, with the hub of the Festival being the Scottish Storytelling Centre on the Royal Mile.

In the last few years, the popularity of magic has risen dramatically with the rise of David Blaine, Derren Brown and Harry Potter seeing the emergence of a new generation of magicians and magic lovers. The organisers believe that Edinburgh, the city that inspired JK Rowlng's best-selling books about a boy wizard, should host a world-renown Magic Festival.

There are always magic performances as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe but they are usually lost within the programme between the theatre and comedy shows - and I should know, I always spend the day that the programme is released trying to hunt down all the magicians at the Festival Fringe! However, the aim of the Edinburgh International Magic Festival is to shine a spotlight on the Art of Magic as well as to feature original, high-quality, professional acts and will aim to encourage the development of up and coming artists by giving local talent a chance to showcase their acts to an audience in a theatre.

Since the Festival is taking place during the second week of July - not long after the start of the school summer holidays here in Scotland - there will also be a number of events for children that will aim to place magic at the heart of learning, as well as using it as a vehicle to convey educational messages in different shows and workshops, from road safety to science in magic.

I'll try to keep you posted with any more information but you can sign up to get full details as they are announced by visiting the Edinburgh International Magic Festival website where I understand they will be announcing the full line-up of performers in the not too distant future.

I'm looking forward to it - maybe I'll see you there.

Speak soon.

The Cardman :-)