Imaginate has announced the programme for its 30th anniversary year with a launch at the First Minister’s residence, Bute House.

The 2019 programme includes a beefed-up Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, which this year runs from Saturday 25 May to Sunday 2 June. The festival will feature Small Wonders, a production from the celebrated company Punchdrunk, who will be performing in Scotland for the first time. The interactive theatrical experience will invite young audiences inside the home of an elderly miniaturist and will run for three weeks.

The festival will also feature two new Imaginate commissions. Stellar Quines will stage a new production of the This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing, a contemporary fairytale about triplet sisters, while The Letter J’s Super Human Heroes will explore the ways we are, fail and try to be super human heroes through live music, dance and video projection. The full festival programme will be announced on 20 March.

Other initiatives announced at the launch include Accelerator, a programme offering funding and support to allow artists to take new and ambitious ideas to production, and Launchpad, a similar scheme aimed at emerging artists. The organisation are also a new Inspiring Schools scheme and a three-year Creative Europe-funded project called PUSH+  which will enable Imaginate to forge stronger links with four European countries as the UK faces leaving the European Union.

“Our 30th anniversary is the perfect opportunity to launch new programmes that will deepen our relationships with schools in Edinburgh and across Scotland, encourage artists to make new works for young audiences and create stronger international relationships,” said Paul Fitzpatrick, Imaginate’s CEO. “What’s exciting is that these new programmes will be in place for the next three years, making a real change to what we are providing for theatre and dance for young people in Scotland.”

For more details of Imaginate’s work see www.imaginate.org.uk