A PARLIAMENT far for dull will convene this year at the former Royal High School in Edinburgh, writes Amelia Hill.
For three weeks during the Festival, the European Youth Parliament will engage in political debate enlivened by music and theatre.
Young people aged from 17 to 22 have been picked from schools and universities across 28 European countries to attend.
They will participate in courses and masterclasses taking place at the High School from August 8 to 29, presenting the public with an opera, a ballet, and an orchestral work at the end of the period.
The Demarco European Art Foundation is calling the event the answer to the glut of stand-up comedians at the Festival.
Richard Demarco, artistic director to the European Youth Parliament and Professor of European Studies at the University of Kingston, said: ''We're trying to bring back the intellectual and ideological side of the Festival.
''My idea of a perfect parliament is one where everyone can sing and dance, as well as argue and debate.
''The European Youth Parliament takes art seriously. Art for the parliament is not entertainment, it is not leisure. It is education.
''These young people, the brightest of their generation, see art as politics and arts as a process of healing the wounds of war and of mismanaged social structures in our mismanaged planet.''
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