Read time: approx 3 minutes

'When asked about my home,
I reply I am Edinburgh.
The city of sandstone that encases my brain.'

- Edinburgh Young Creative

At the Edinburgh International Festival, we create the space for people to connect with the Festival, each other and the world around them. This year, we found inspiration in the theatre adaptation of The Outrun and delivered a cultural exchange that united two groups of young people, aged 16-18, from Orkney and Edinburgh.

If you don’t know the story, Amy Liptrot’s memoir, The Outrun, traces a young woman’s relationship with two contrasting environments: the wildly beautiful Orkney and the bustling streets of London. At the 2024 International Festival, The Lyceum adapted the memoir for the stage (★★★★★ The Herald). At a crucial time in these young people’s lives, where they might be wondering about their sense of self and place in the world, creative writing can be a tool to help them navigate hopes, fears and dreams of the future.

Our young creatives embarked on an eight-month creative journey exploring how their identity is shaped by the landscapes they've grown up in. Artists, writers and our Discovery & Participation team helped them along the way.

In June, the groups met for the first time in Orkney. They explored the islands’ natural and historic sites, dipped their toes in Orkney's biting waters and gathered inspiration for a weekend of creative writing at Kirkwall Grammar School.

The young creatives were challenged to push themselves out of their comfort zones and embrace the messiness of the creative process, each developing a piece of writing to exhibit in The Church Hill Theatre. Over the weekend, many drafts were written, and new friendships were formed as the groups shared their experiences of their homelands.

Their writing, alongside photographs and objects collected in Orkney, was displayed in The Church Hill Theatre throughout the Festival.

Then, during August, the Edinburgh group played host to the Orcadians, and together, they explored the city and experienced the unparralled excitement of the world’s Festival City. The First Minister John Swinney visited the young people to hear them share their creative writing and experiences of the project. His continued support, reaffirmed by a Parliamentary Motion lodged by Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, demonstrates the impact and importance of this project.

This exchange brought two groups of young creatives from very different landscapes together at a formative point in their lives. As they make big decisions about their futures, we hope they will carry forward their new friendships, confidence in their creative abilities, and a deeper connection to the landscapes which have built them.

Chats with Edinburgh

- Edinburgh Young Creative

When asked about my home,
I reply I am Edinburgh.
The city of sandstone that encases my brain.

I am Edinburgh’s beauty that oozes, honey-like.
I am the busker that brings an upturn to my wanders,
I dance along, accompanied by twirls and giggles.
I am the Italian cherub angels that soar but are fixed,
in rooms dedicated to human curiosity.

I am the Meadows, where I feel most at home;
I am hairy pews of grass, parted by concrete aisles.
A place where you could paint your bum blue
and dance around naked,
without an eyelid twitching.
I am the barking voices and holy ball games,
the sunlit intoxication and makeshift feasts.
I am on the outside looking in.

I am Edinburgh, I am the Meadows,
the place I have cried and laughed freakishly,
in solitude and surrounded by people.
Tell me Edinburgh, why do you feel so engrained in me?
Do you feel special that I picked you?

Tell me Edinburgh, what is right and what is wrong?
Why is life not black and white?
Tell me Edinburgh, are you able to feel special?
It’s okay to yell it, it’ll swirl away in castle rock gusts.
It’s okay to whisper it, it’ll be wailed over by pipers’ pitches.
Edinburgh, tell me what I need to know.
You are the place I always go.

Questions for an unknown object

- Orkney Young Creative