'Coffeehouse discussion' series featuring Gordon Brown to question 'dark and dazzling' American dream at EIF

Combining discussions with live performances from this year's programme, the new Global Ideas Stage series will feature former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, filmmaker Ken Burns, lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson and broadcast journalist Amy Goodman.

The event ​- which is seen as a blueprint for future years ​- features intimate dialogues held on the same day, on topics including the​ Scottish Enlightenment's influence on America, the arts as a medium for ideas and the state of​ democracy today, before all speakers come together for a full hour-long panel discussion.​

The launch comes weeks after the EIF announced its programme this year would focus on America - including a residency by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, headed and founded by Wynton Marsalis.

Festival director Nicola Benedetti said the discussion series would explore this year’s Festival theme, All Rise, a “rallying cry” of resilience and ascendance marking the 250th anniversary of American independence.

Held in partnership with Panmure House, the final home of Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith,​ the events, under the wider EIF theme “All Rise”, will be hosted at the newly-refurbished King's Theatre on 11 August.

Nicola Benedetti, festival director of the EIF, said: "This year's Edinburgh International Festival examines both the dark and dazzling possibilities of the American Dream, under our theme All Rise, marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence.

“Exceptional artists from across the United States and around the world present stories and artistic achievements born from – and inspired by – its cultural melting pot, with all the friction and energy that this inspires.”

She added: “When we rise, we question. Our first ever Global Ideas Stage brings together a curated group of influential thinkers as we tackle urgent universal questions around justice, liberty and the role of the arts in expressing ideas. This inaugural gathering is a testament to our belief that when the abstractness of art and the pragmatism of conversation come together, the deepest impact is possible.”

“With a call to action that resonates far beyond one nation, our Global Ideas Stage and full Festival programme celebrates the peak of human creativity, proposes how we can rise above adversity and implores us to stand together.”

Professor Adam Dixon, director of Panmure House said: “This August Edinburgh International Festival and Panmure House, the last home of Adam Smith, will reignite the old coffeehouse discussions of Edinburgh's enlightenment past.

“These conversations gave the world a new language, of freedom, rights and human potential, and reaffirm the Festival's founding conviction: that through culture and exchange we will see each other more truthfully and more tolerantly.

He added: "The Global Ideas Stage brings together perspectives from politics, law, music, film and the arts to confront the defining questions of our time. What does a just world look like – and what will it take to build one? I look forward to exploring these questions together in Edinburgh this August."