The biggest arts festival in the world – the Edinburgh Festival – opened last weekend with the 30th annual Festival Cavalcade making its way through the streets led by the cast of the Military Tattoo.

As well as the Tattoo, the Festival includes the fringe, film and book festivals and of course the Edinburgh International Festival. It’s estimated that these bring around £184m to the Scottish economy. Not an insignificant amount!

Director of the Fringe, Paul Gudgin, is warning that despite its successful track record of always adding new and interesting aspects to the festival, Edinburgh cannot afford to be complacent. There are new festivals being planned, big and small, across the UK and internationally that will offer considerable competition.

In the true spirit of innovation, two organisations which run visitor attractions in Edinburgh – Historic Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland – have come up with novel ways of engaging the visitor and attracting new audiences.

Historic Scotland, which manages Edinburgh Castle, this year becomes an official venue for the Fringe. Last weekend Scotland’s leading breakdancing group, Random Aspekts kicked off the countdown to ‘One Night at the Castle’. This will take place on 13 August with over 100 performers. Street performers, magicians, musicians and visual artists will be there to greet visitors in the cobbled wynds and four stages and give them an experience to remember. In addition, visitors can still enjoy all the other attractions at the castle such as the Scottish crown jewels and the Prisoner of War exhibition. Not to mention the unique opportunity to see the sun go down over Edinburgh from the ramparts of the castle.

Over at the National Galleries, the summer season of exhibitions promises not to disappoint. For two of those exhibitions – Van Gogh and Britain – Pioneer Collectors and Ron Mueck, NGS has introduced its ‘Podcurator’ (see separate story). Van Gogh is narrated by Hannah Gordon and Ron Mueck by Radio 1’s Edith Bowman. In its first two days of opening last weekend the Mueck exhibition saw an astounding 4,000 visitors!

Both these initiatives offer a new experience to the visitor and add value to the visit. Something that needs to be embraced by all to ensure future sustainability.