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This week, 27 cultural and natural treasures were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list. But while Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly biosphere, the South Pacific islands of Vanuatu, and the Baha’i holy places in Israel celebrated their inscriptions to the registry, the center of Edinburgh was put on wait-and-see alert. That’s because Scotland’s fabled city — a Heritage site since 1995 — has approved a $600 million development in the heart of its medieval Old Town that’s set to demolish two listed buildings to make way for a five-star hotel.
Amid the uproar of 1,800 objections, UNESCO will now send in its inspectors to see if Edinburgh should be stripped of its Heritage status (which despite the prestige, guarantees no statutory protection). And they’re serious: a decade ago, Cairo was poised to build a highway that would have breached the area around the Pyramids of Giza. UNESCO stepped in, and the road was aborted. Just last week, the German city of Dresden was also told it would be deleted from the list if construction didn’t halt on a new four-lane bridge said to compromise the area around Pillnitz Palace.
For Edinburgh — at least for now — the show goes on. And how. Its upcoming festival season is, of course, lorded over by the famous Fringe (August 3-25), the largest arts festival on the planet (think 31,320 performances of mostly comedy and theater in 247 venues). But you can also expect a panoply of cultural powwows — including the 30th Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival (July 25-August 3); the 61st Edinburgh International Festival (August 8-31), centered around opera, dance and classical music; and the Edinburgh Art Festival (July 31-August 31), which hosts a Tracy Emin retrospective with Elton John and George Michael expected at the opening party. There’s even a Festival of Spirituality & Peace (August 3-24), whose healing forces, we pray, can save the Old Town from development hell.
read more: 10. Culture | art | performance
