Edinburgh International Festival celebrates its 70th anniversary with an impressive programme of arts. Bringing theatre, dance, music, opera and more to various venues across the city Fri 4–Mon 28 Aug. Highlights include PJ Harvey, Teatro Regio Torino, Magnetic Fields, the world premiere of Alan Ayckbourn's The Divide, Martin Creed and Nederlands Dans Theater.

This year's opening event is Bloom. Building on 2015's Harmonium Project and 2016's Deep Time, 59 Productions' Bloom is another ambitious outdoor audio visual performance taking over an entire 'precinct' of the city for an immersive music and light spectacular. Tickets are free and will be available from 26 June.

The theatre programme features a strong Scottish presence with Edinburgh playwrite Zinnie Harris collaborating on three separate projects: Oresteia: This Restless House from the Citizens Theatre, a timely adaptation of Eugène Ionesco's study of extremism, Rhinoceros, from the Royal Lyceum Theatre with DOT Theatre of Turkey, and the world premiere of Meet Me at Dawn from the Traverse Theatre Company.

London's Old Vic is also returning to the EIF for the first time in more than ten years for the world premiere of Alan Ayckbourn's satirical love story The Divide, directed by Annabel Bolton.

Drawing on the EIF's illustrious past Teatro Regio Torino will be staging Verdi's Macbeth, the first opera to be performed at the International Festival in 1947 (the company will also be staging a new version of Puccini's La bohème).

There will be performances from PJ Harvey, Benjamin Clementine, Magnetic Fields and Jarvis Cocker in collaboration with Chilly Gonzales alongside a new look at Robert Burns (Chains and Slavery, featuring poet and Makar Jackie Kay, singer-songwriter Ghetto Priest and Scottish Ensemble) and a retrospective of psychedelic folk group The Incredible String Band.

Classical performances include EIF debuts from Filarmonica della Scala, The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.

There's also late night cabaret from Martin Creed and Meow Meow; Bryn Terfel stars in Wagner's Die Walküre; a new adaptation of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape with Barry McGovern; hip hop dance from Boy Blue Entertainment's Blak Whyte Gray and a triple bill of new contemporary works from Nederlands Dans Theater and many more amongst the diverse lineup.

Festival Director Fergus Linehan said: 'Since 1947, the International Festival has extended an invitation from the people of Scotland to people all over the world, to join us in celebrating the unparalleled creativity and talent that great artists bring to Edinburgh. In our 70th anniversary year, it feels more important than ever perhaps, that we celebrate the founding values of the International Festival and that through a shared celebration of artistic excellence and cultural exchange, we "provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit" and to continue to welcome the world to our city.'

Edinburgh International Festival, various venues, Fri 4–Mon 28 Aug.