Festivals, Edinburgh

It's "The Fringe" because to begin with it was on the fringes of the "official" International Festival.

Now it seems to be bigger than the official version.

Venues are all over the city, and free shows abound - not just in the streets during the day.

Downsides are that accommodation is full, and so are the restaurants, pubs, public transport etc. Bit of a nightmare if you have to try to live a normal life.

Usually it runs for the last 3 weeks in August.

There have been theaters, err, theatres at this location since 1830. During the first sixty years they were called Dunedin Hall, the Royal Amphitheatre, Alhambra Music Hall, the Queen’s Theatre and Newsome’s Circus.

In 1892 the Empire Palace Theatre was opened on this site. "It was built by the great British theatre architect, Frank Matcham, with lavish decoration: elephants with Nubian riders, nymphs and cherubs abounded the plasterwork. The original Empire Palace Theatre sat 3000 theatregoers on four plush levels of green, cream and tobacco gold." (Quoted from the website below.)

This theatre survived a disastrous fire in 1911 and was used until 1928, when it was replaced by an even grander version. From 1928 to 1963 the Empire was a variety, musical and opera house, and was also used for ice shows. From 1963 to 1991 it was a bingo hall, but then it was completely rebuilt again, with a new all-glass front end facing Nicolson Street.

They describe the current auditorium as "a wonderful restoration of the Empire Theatre’s former 1928 glory, a dramatic mix of art nouveau, beaux arts and neo-classicism, encompassing perfect acoustics within a parlour-like intimacy." It now has a capacity of 1915 seats.

It was re-named the Edinburgh Festival Theatre when it re-opened in June 1994.


Please see my Edinburgh Festival Theatre travelogue for more photos and information about this interesting theatre.

Edinburgh Fringe, www. edfringe.com. Was really good. i saw Gyles Brandreth, the One to One Show. No Son of Mine, which was good. Also Tom Craine. Choirboy to Addict and Back Again. That was also good. I saw some fantasic street theater. And had a tasty lunch.

I only went up for the day on the train. So next year I plan to do it properly and stay over.

Not sure how many festivals Edinburgh has...

Well this is one. Running 30 July to 8 August this year (2010).

A feature is the Mardis Gras & parade on the first Saturday. The route seems to vary year on year, but it ends up in the Grassmarket.

They had 3 mini stages with various acts, and the Samba School just doing its stuff at ground level. It all ran from 1 to 4pm.

Grassmarket area has lots of pubs & restaurants. You can take your drink outside and wander from stage to stage (not legal, usually). All for free, apart from the drinks of course.

Fun atmosphere.

4 more images

This festival is held at The Meadows in south Edinburgh. It is held annually. In 2009 it fell on the weekend of 6 and 7 June; from 10am -5pm on the Saturday and 11am - 5pm on the Sunday.
The Festival Stage and the Forest Stage both have bands, choir, and dancing is performed. There was also an Art Tent from Edinburgh College of Art. Kids tents with arts, crafts, face painting and other activities. Near the Kids' tent was the Capoeira Demonstration of Brazilian arts, games, music and dance.
For the adults there is a Beer Tent where Williams Brothers Brewery provides ale.
Toilets are placed at opposite sides of the grounds.
Football and cricket were being played, and there were Amusements with rides .
As well as these large attractions were stalls selling clothing, plants, books, bric a brac, second hand furniture and jewellery.

Stalls selling crepes, burgers, hot drinks also could be found.
Prices were reasonable, or even dirt cheap.

1 more image

The Fringe started up as a subsidiary to the main Edinburgh Festival of arts, books, poetry, paintings, pictures, classical performances etc etc.

The Fringe has sort of got out of control. So many *acts* have come here in the last three weeks of August that you could not possibly come here and see all of them, you have to pick and choose carefully. The main advantage is that you can see some big UK names and also big worldwide names performing for very little money. The other advantage is that you have the choice of world wide performers. Ladyboys from Bangkok. Drummers from China. Dancers from Korea. Puppetry of the Pen!s from Australia. One on one guitar recitals from professional musicians. Free Comedy shows all night long. Street performers (see pic). You want it, we got it. As well as the Castle, the Tattoo (featured separately). The whole town comes alive and is invaded by The World. It's pretty special, but for accommodation, you will probably have to book a year in advance.

Come and enjoy, you can do street shows for nothing and exist on Marks and Spencer's sandwiches and bottled water.

Twice, I have been to Edinburgh but I have not scheduled my trip right yet. One should visit Edinburgh late in summer, usually in August although sometimes it does extend into August. I am talking about the Edinburgh International Festival and the last time that I was in Edinburgh, I was there the week before the festival began and still got such a wonderful taste of it that they almost had to drag me onto the bus when it was time to return to Oxford.
The festival has been held every summer for over sixty years and features opera, dance, classical music, and theatre over a period of three weeks at six major performance sites plus several other less prestigious ones.
In addition to the "formal" Edinburgh International Festival, and probably because of its popularity, several other festivals have arisen around Edinburgh at about the same time, so you can potentially find just about any type of entertainment you might imagine.
The 2009 Edinburgh International Festival will run from 14 August through 6 September.

3 more images

August in Edinburgh means only with thing - the Festivals. In 4 short weeks, the separate Military Tattoo, International Festival, Fringe Festival, Film Festival and Book Festival offer fare for all tastes as hundreds of thousands of people flock to the city. The International Festival is the oldest in the world: the Fringe Festival the biggest in the world. Every theatre, church hall, community centre, room above a pub becomes a theatre venue as some 3000 productions vie for audiences, press coverage and awards. Even the streets become venues. Its an exhilarating if exhausting time to be in the city.

this is the biggest annual event ever in Edinburgh and Scotland at a larger scope. it attracts over thousands and thousands of tourists from all over the country and overseas, with over 16,000,000 ticket sales over the month of august only.

this year it has hosted over 2000 live shows including british contemporary performances, nigerian, mexian, japanese besides other international shows. the shows are at small, medium and large scale that can have 5 attendants or over 200 people.

the Royal Mile is a very good venue for previews where performers and artists pre-perform their shows in front of the walk-by audience, distribute their flyers, and get a wider audience later in the evening. this area can get very crowded and thus very vibrant and friendly throghout the whole day and all venues are within a walking distance

the Edinburgh festival may coincide with other festivals like the Film Festival, the Fringe and the Tattoo, where they all revolve around theatre and music and arts in general. very popular and must attend if you're around

1 more image

No matter what you're into you will find something you like here. And probably you wont have the time to try everything you want to.

Streetartists, theatre performances, great music appearences, food food and more food, beer tents, shopping, the Tattoo, art shows, clubbing, international markets, fireworks... Its all there!

Fringe last 4weeks, Aug to Sep, dates varies.
Visit the Edinburgh Fringe Website to find out more!