Edinburgh book festival to quit New Town for art school

Festival cites Covid and costs of staging event heavily dependent on live audiences as reason for move

For nearly 40 years, the Edinburgh book festival has been held in a small tented city in Edinburgh’s Georgian New Town, its audiences sweltering in the summer sun or drenched by sudden downpours.

But in yet another casualty of the coronavirus crisis, the festival has quit Charlotte Square’s garden, citing the significant costs and long-term uncertainties of staging an event heavily dependent on live audiences.

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