Fergus Linehan, a former director of the Sydney festival, is to take over the Edinburgh international festival.

For the second time in a row, the Edinburgh international festival has looked to Australia for an artistic director, with, it has announced, the appointment of Irish native Fergus Linehan to take over from Jonathan Mills from the 2015 festival.

Linehan was, until 2012, the head of contemporary music at the Sydney Opera House where he programmed jazz, pop and world music alongside classical music from visiting ensembles. He is currently artistic director of Vivid LIVE, a festival that mingles music, light installations and talks and debates in Sydney, and that this May presents Kraftwerk performing their eight albums and Bobby Womack's Australian debut.

Previously, he was artistic director of the Sydney festival from 2004-9, where he was credited with increasing turnover from aus $12m to aus $20m and increasing audiences.