Get set for an enchanting and explosive final Festival week.

Gun
crime drama in Rutherglen, Stirling and
Cumbernauld.

Whirling
Dervishes from Turkey.

100,000
fireworks ready to launch.

Get
set for an enchanting and explosive final Festival week.

Edinburgh International Festival continues until 31 August and arguably
saves some of the best for last - with 38 events still to run before
100,000 fireworks light up the sky at 9pm on Sunday in the spectacular Festival
finale, the Bank
of Scotland Fireworks Concert. Don't
miss the Whirling
Dervishes of Turkey - "an enchanting experience that
everyone should see at least once in a lifetime" - Israel's super-cool Batsheva Dance Company, an all-female Iranian cast in Bazi
Theatre Company's Devil's
Ship and a hotly-anticipated world premiere from theatrical
genius and festival favourite, Heiner
Goebbels.

As
well as an action-packed final week in Edinburgh,
the Festival tours to Rutherglen, Stirling and Cumbernauld, for the very first
time, with special one-off
performances of Sarajevo-based East West Theatre Company's Class Enemy.

Violence in schools, gun crime and disaffected youth are just some of the hard-hitting themes of the powerful and gritty drama, presented at
the Royal Lyceum Theatre during Festival 2008. As part of the Sharing the Festival 08 initiative, which
aims to take the Edinburgh International Festival to a new, wider audience, Class Enemy tours central Scotland after
its Festival run, as follows:

Rutherglen Town Hall Wed 27 Aug, 19.30     Tickets: 0141 613 5700

macrobert
Arts Centre, Stirling Tues 2 Sept, 19.30      Tickets: 01786 466
666

Cumbernauld Theatre Thurs 4 Sept, 19.45    Tickets: 01236 732887

Class Enemy, which moves the
action from its original location of London in
the late ‘70s to recent years in Sarajevo,
has won critical acclaim worldwide. The story of a group of teenagers,
abandoned in a classroom and left to create their own lessons has shocking and
moving consequences.

Festival
Director Jonathan Mills said: "The party is far from over in Edinburgh! Stay with us
for an impressive final week of world class shows from performers as far afield
as Iran, Israel and Turkey. The Festival spirit
continues all week long with a string of UK and World Premiere productions
and ends with a four tonne bang on Sunday night at the Bank of Scotland
Fireworks Concert."

- ENDS -

Highlights for Week 3 of the Edinburgh International Festival

OPERA

• Valery Gergiev conducts the
  Mariinsky Opera and Orchestra in The Enchanted Wanderer (Tues 26 Aug) and
• Król Roger (Wed 27 Aug) at the Festival Theatre.

DANCE

• Matthew Bourne's Dorian
  Gray (King's Theatre, until Sat 30 Aug)
• The Whirling Dervishes of Turkey (Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Fri 29
  & Sat 30 Aug)
• Deca Dance 2008 (The Edinburgh Playhouse, Thu 28 - Sat
  30 Aug).

THEATRE

• I went to the house but did not
  enter (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Thu 28
  - Sat 30 Aug)
• Devil's Ship (The Hub, Tues 26 & Wed 27
  Aug)

MUSIC

• Classical masters, up close and
  personal in The Queen's Hall Series, every
  morning at 11.00, featuring soloists from the Budapest Festival Orchestra (Tues 26 Aug) and the Jerusalem Quartet (Fri 29 Aug).
• Sound on a monumental scale,
  with world-famous orchestras and soloists at the Usher Hall: including Hélène
  Grimaud's festival debut with Staatskapelle Dresden (Thurs 28 Aug), the Scottish
  Chamber Orchestra (Fri 29 Aug) and Gennadi Rozhdestvensky conducting the
  Edinburgh Festival Chorus and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in A Child of Our Time (Sat 30 Aug).
• And, last but not least, the
  incredible festival finale - the Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert: an exuberant display of live
  music from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and pyrotechnics filling Edinburgh's
  skies, to the swirling rhythms of central European folk dance music.

Edinburgh International Festival 8 - 31 August
2008

For more information please visit www.eif.co.uk