Founded in 1947, the Festival grew out of the rubble of the Second World War with the aim of providing “a platform for the flowering of the human spirit”. This belief in the power of the arts to nurture and transform lies at the heart of the Festival's mission today. The Edinburgh International Festival was the first of its kind and continues to set the benchmark for major arts festivals all over the world.

The 2011 Edinburgh International Festival: To the Far West runs from Friday 12 August to Sunday 4 September and is an exploration and celebration of the vibrant and diverse cultures of Asia and their long standing influences on the cultural landscape of the West.

Artists from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, as well as North America, Germany, Belgium, Russia, the UK and from across the Arab speaking world, will gather in Edinburgh for three weeks of dance, theatre, opera, music and visual arts. Featured below are some of the highlights from this year’s programme.

Bringing together east and west and demonstrating the ideas and ambitions of Festival 2011, the Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre plays host to the Chinese National Ballet’s The Peony Pavilion.

Based on one of the most famous love stories in Chinese literature, choreographer Fei Bo brings to life Tang Xianzu’s classic tale by fusing traditional Chinese dance with western classical ballet. Musical accompaniment is provided by the Chinese Symphony Orchestra.

Scottish Ballet together with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra will be performing two works as part of their run of shows at the Edinburgh Playhouse. Audiences will be treated to acclaimed choreographer Jorma Elo’s New Work as well as a performance of Kenneth MacMillan’s classic ballet Song of the Earth - set to Mahler’s stunning song cycle Das Lied von der Erde.

The dance programme also includes French-Vietnamese choreographer Ea Sola’s Drought and Rain (a re-creation of her critically acclaimed meditation on the human cost of war), New York-based Chinese choreographer Shen Wei’s Re-Triptych, a programme of work from the award winning South Indian Nrityagram Dance Ensemble and Korean choreographer Eun-Me Ahn's colourful tale of Princess Bari.

This year’s theatre programme features three of Shakespeare’s most famous works re-imagined by Asian theatre companies. The Tempest is performed by Mokwha Repertory Company from Seoul - who weave Shakespeare’s famous tale with fifth-century Korean chronicles, King Lear is tackled by Contemporary Legend Theatre from Taipei and the Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe present The Revenge of Prince Zi Dan - a retelling of the familiar tale of Hamlet set in China and performed in their trademark flamboyant style.

And making its European premier at the Royal Lyceum is Tim Supple’s latest production One Thousand and One Nights. An epic dramatisation split into two parts, it brings together actors from across the Arab speaking world and re-examines the brutal, erotic and enthralling stories of Shahrazad.

Some of the highlights within the music programme include three performances from the Philip Glass Ensemble as they soundtrack Godfrey Reggio’s epic Qatsi Trilogy at the Edinburgh Playhouse, Singapore’s T’ang Quartet bring their fresh perspective on classical works to the Queens Hall, legendary sitar player Ravi Shankar returns to the Festival for the first time in 20 years for a one off performance of evening ragas and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra present the world premier of Toshio Hosokawa's EIF commissioned Blossoming II.

Visual arts are also well represented with Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto’s dramatic exploration of nature photography - Lightning Fields and Photogenic Drawings - making its European premier at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and Dovecot Studios present Heirlooms - a multi-layered exhibition celebrating the rich heritage of Indian and Javanese textile traditions and their continuing influence on innovative contemporary craft practice.

A number of this year’s performances are also complimented by workshops and talks that give the public an opportunity to further engage with the work - details of which can be found together with the full Festival programme on the Edinburgh International Festival website.

The Edinburgh International Festival is a Creative Scotland Foundation Organisation and in 2011 was awarded funding through the Scottish Government’s Expo fund for this year's Scottish Ballet production at the Edinburgh Playhouse.

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