When Stewart Aitken took over as chief executive of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival three years ago, one of his more straightforward aims was to persuade more people to come to the shows.

That might seem self-evident, but in fact it was quite an important statement of intent.

The AIYF is no new kid on the block. This year’s is the 38th event and it is, beyond argument, a truly international event. 24 nations were originally involved in this year’s programme and just three have fallen by the wayside negotiating all the hurdles of fundraising, visa applications and travel arrangements. Many of the young performers – dancers, actors, and particularly musicians – are the very best in their age-group. For them the festival is as much about the opportunity to meet other youngsters from around the world with whom they share a common skill and interest.

Aitken, it would seem, has taken the reasonable view that the young folks can look after that side of the business themselves. A Herald arts writer who has, in the past, acted as a chaperone to an Edinburgh ensemble at the festival confirms that this is the case, and has had the sleepless nights to prove it. The AIYF director turned his attention to building the audience for the young people to see enjoying their work.

“The festival needed to evolve and become more accessible. I have programmed performances at different times of the day, more intimate shows of music, theatre and dance in churches and smaller venues. I have encouraged participants to bring family shows aimed at smaller children,” he says.

A new strand called Up Close and Musical follows expands a toe-dipping exercise into chamber music last year, expanded to include traditional music and jazz. At all of those concerts, in the Lemon Tree, Cowdray Hall and Queens Cross Church, tickets cost no more than £5. Aitken has found venues very keen to expand their involvement with the festival to embrace shows at 11am and 3pm as well as in the evening.

“There was a lot about the youth festival that was weighted towards the groups meeting another and serving a loyal following of people in the area. But there are also holidaymakers and older people who don’t want to go out in the evening to attract, and I want to open the door to family audiences. We cannot going to rely on the core audience so much – 38 years ago there was a lot less competition in the city so we need to raise the profile of the AIYF. I want to meet more people seeing three shows a day.”

Although he has pegged ticket prices, always basing his affordability question on what it would cost to take his own family to a performance, Aitken is confident of a box office hike this year. There are now over 100 shows in the programme, and another 30 or so in the “extended festival”. The reach of the AIYF is now far beyond Aberdeenshire, with shows touring to Inverness, St Andrews, Dunfermline, and even Edinburgh.

Some 1200 young people will be arriving in Aberdeen from today until August 7, between 400 and 500 of them from overseas. The list of visitors includes South Africa, Burundi and Senegal; Russia, Romania and Belarus; Germany, France and Norway – and three community groups from Canada with origins in the Philippines, West Africa and the Ukraine.

Homegrown talent is out of the top drawer as well, with almost all of Scotland’s national youth arts companies and art forms represented at the highest level. The National Youth Choir of Scotland’s Edinburgh operation brings its senior choir. Edinburgh Youth Orchestra has international soprano Lisa Milne singing Strauss’s Four Last Songs in a programme with Shostakovich and Bernstein. Andy Howitt’s YDance will be strutting their stuff and Scottish Youth Theatre has responded to the call for work for younger children.

The festival is also hosting a performance by 16 singers from the Alexander Gibson opera school of the RSAMD. When they sing Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music on Sunday with the Jura String Quartet it is on the eve of their performance of the same piece at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra – in a concert that also features the Proms debut of Nicola Benedetti.

Aberdeen International Youth Festival, today to Saturday August 7. www.aiyf.org