The Edinburgh Report

Pete Irvine has written a book - Crossing The Sound - which he describes as auto fiction. It is true that it features the music industry, Scotland, the islands, London and Ibiza. Here he talks to us sitting outside his Edinburgh home and explains the genesis of the work.

Pete is the man who introduced Edinburgh's Hogmanay to the capital, founded Regular Music and Unique Events. He has written many books previously - but this is his debut novel.

A movement based in alliances was developed during a residency exchange with Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop’s partners in Quebec, Fonderie Darling and Gare de Matapédia, and Hospitalfield in the UK.  Listen to our interview with Kate Power the artist.

Former V&A film curator, Keith Lodwick guides us into the new exhibition at Dovecot which opens on 18 July. Cosprop is the costume house especially known for creating period costumes, and which has dressed characters in many films and TV series such as Helena Bonham Carter in A Room With A View, Meryl Streep in Out of Africa and Maggie Smith.

Founded in 1965 by John Bright Cosprop specialises in period costume of the utmost accuracy for film, TV and theatre.

Tucked among a sea of felted red chairs in the Filmhouse film writer, Lucas McQueen spoke to EIFF CEO and Festival Director, Paul Ridd, who alongside Festival Producer Emma Boa, has brought this line-up to life for audiences to enjoy this August

Sabina Kadić-Mackenzie, moved from Bosnia when she was just nine years-old. She is now a Senior Partner with Edinburgh public affairs company, Charlotte Street Partners. She came to Scotland to study journalism at Stirling University, and was appointed Chair of the charity, Beyond Srebrenica.  

Her journey with her two sisters - one of whom is her identical twin - and her mother, while leaving her father behind was heartbreaking. Her father ran his own engineering business and her mother was “an accomplished electrical engineer”.

She explained that if the family had not left war-torn Bosnia that very day then she may not have survived. She said: “Sanski Most is one of the most beautiful parts of the world you could ever visit sitting on nine rivers, surrounded by lush valleys and waterfalls. It is a town now synonymous with war crimes and the genocide.”

Evans Eghan from Ghana is the President of the Edinburgh Napier Students Association. He has a huge life ambition - but that will be fulfilled after he has studied for a PhD in Event Management. He has lived in Edinburgh for three years and is someone who has embraced every opportunity living here has offered him.

This interview is with Vineet Lal, who describes himself as a Southsider, although the family settled in Leith in Edinburgh on first arriving in the capital. Vineet is from an auspicious Edinburgh family. Both his mother and father were involved in many initiatives in Edinburgh to combat racism in the city, in education and in civic life. He is mindful of that legacy as he prepares for the Saroj Lal awards in June 2026 - the awards for school children and city schools which are named after his mother. He now considers himself as an activist.

The 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Programme is published on 4 June. There are 3,649 shows between 7 and 31 August and almost 54,000 performances in a city which is home to 550,000 people.

Here we speak to Tony Lankester the CEO of Edinburgh Festival Fringe in what is his second summer in the job.

He tell us about the move to Infirmary Street and the new Fringe Hub as well as what the Society is really there for.

The people who have spoken to The Edinburgh Reporter for the project Edinburgh is Our Home include Simita Kumar, who was recently elected as MSP for Edinburgh Southwestern. Previously, she was the SNP group leader on Edinburgh Council, but began working as a modern apprentice with Glasgow City Council.

Later she studied psychology with criminology and worked with NHS Lothian.

She had little choice but to move to Scotland with her family. She was a teenager living in Fiji when her parents decided to move to the UK so that her father could work in Glasgow as a chef. He resisted at first but then thought it would be a good way to improve life for his family. Here she tells us about her life in Scotland - and some of the challenges

The new exhibition at Dovecot Studios on Infirmary Street in Edinburgh is about Biba. This is more than just affordable dresses, it is about the whole concept from fashion to food which was begun by Barbara Hulanicki as a mail order business.

Co-curator, Dennis Nothdruft, who is Head of Exhibitions at Fashion and Textile Museum, London very kindly spoke to us about the background to the exhibition.