Edinburgh Festival Goes Phone-Free Under Benedetti
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- Nicola Benedetti, director of the Edinburgh International Festival since 2023, declared the festival a "phone-free" environment with a "lights down, phones off" policy implemented at the request of artists and audiences.
- Edinburgh International Festival said every single concert in its Queen's Hall chamber series was disrupted by mobile phones last year, with many incidents broadcast and frustrating both in-room and at-home listeners.
- Phoebe Bridgers, Bob Dylan, Jack White, and Swedish rock band Ghost already enforce no-phone policies, while actresses Rosamund Pike, Jessie Buckley, and Lesley Manville have publicly complained about phone use during performances and curtain calls.
- Edinburgh International Festival's policy stops well short of Phoebe Bridgers's pouch system — audiences may still photograph curtain calls and post them online, and phones are allowed before, after, and at the interval.
- Drop-in outdoor performances and dementia-friendly concerts are exempt from the ban, and staff will be on standby to help patrons silence phones or disable scheduled alerts.
- Benedetti invoked the late pianist Alfred Brendel, whom this year's Queen's Hall series pays tribute to, quoting him that "the audience's contribution is concentration and silence – it's an electricity the musician can charge from."
Why it matters: Edinburgh is choosing a middle path between Phoebe Bridgers-style hard enforcement and the current norm, betting that artist and audience pressure — after every Queen's Hall chamber concert was disrupted last year — has reached a tipping point. Staff-assisted compliance keeps the policy gentle enough not to alienate ticket-buyers while still aiming to restore the concentrated listening environment artists say they're losing.
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