The original Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh, 3 November 1815. The university courtyard is buzzing. A band is playing. Surrounding streets are filled with thousands of excited spectators, many waiting since 10 a.m. From the Castle, from windows and rooftops, from Calton Hill, Holyrood Park and Salisbury Crags, all strain to get a glimpse. Then finally at 3 p.m., above the university, a large balloon suddenly emerges, climbing wondrously into the crisp November sky.

Orchestrating this aeronautical display was pioneer English balloonist James Sadler. His balloon rose majestically as the westerly wind took it towards the sea. Sadler continued waving his flags as long as he could be seen, and the crowds applauded and gasped.

Having forgotten his map, and with visibility worsening, Sadler cut short his planned flight, landing after 20 minutes by the Forth. An animated crowd followed him, causing such a crush that balloon and car were totally destroyed, bits carried off as souvenirs. Sadler, exhausted, was borne shoulder-high in triumph into Portobello.

Despite capturing the popular imagination, Sadler’s balloon was a fringe event. Edinburgh had long been in a state of fevered excitement, with people flocking into the city from far and wide in anticipation of the very first Edinburgh Musical Festival.

Three days before Sadler’s ascent, on Tuesday 31 October, the inaugural concert had opened in a packed old Parliament House, launching the greatest musical extravaganza that Scotland had ever seen. Hugely popular, the six concerts almost sold out — 9,011 tickets overall, 2,141 for Handel’s Messiah alone.

Thanks to Covid-19, Edinburgh this month is empty, for the first time in 73 years. Edinburgh International Festival was conceived in 1945 to ‘provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit’ and help Britain and Europe recover from the war. The first Edinburgh Musical Festival also emerged from challenging times at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, opening just four months after the Battle of Waterloo.

There are other resonances: the explicit priority of the 1815 festival was to raise as much money as possible for charitable purposes — an impressive total of £1,500 (approximately £140,000 today) over the five days.