Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
December
Edinburgh's Hogmanay is the biggest winter festival in Europe.
ENTERTAINMENT
Edinburgh's Christmas
( www.edinburghschristmas.com ) The youngest of the Scottish capital's festivals, first held
in 2000, the Christmas bash includes a big street parade, a fairground and Ferris wheel, and
an open-air ice rink in Princes Street Gardens. The celebrations are held over the three
weeks before Christmas Day.
FESTIVAL CITY
August in Edinburgh sees a frenzy of festivals, with half-a-dozen world-class events running at the same time.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
When the first Edinburgh Festival was held in 1947, there were eight theatre companies who didn't make it onto the
main program. Undeterred, they grouped together and held their own mini-festival, on the fringe, and an Edinburgh
institution was born. Today the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Offline map Google map ( 0131-226 0026;
www.edfringe.com ; 180 High St) is the biggest festival of the performing arts anywhere in the world.
Since 1990 the Fringe has been dominated by stand-up comedy, but the sheer variety of shows on offer is stag-
gering - everything from chainsaw juggling to performance poetry to Tibetan yak-milk gargling. So how do you
decide what to see? There are daily reviews in the Scotsman newspaper - one good Scotsman review and a show
sells out in hours - but the best recommendation is word of mouth. If you have the time, go to at least one unknown
show - it may be crap, but at least you'll have your obligatory 'worst show I ever saw' story.
The big names play at megavenues organised by big agencies such as Assembly Offline map Google map
( www.assemblyfestival.com ) and the Gilded Balloon ( www.gildedballoon.co.uk ) , and charge megaprices (£15 a
ticket and up, with some famous comedians notoriously charging more than £30), but there are plenty of good
shows in the £5 to £10 range and, best of all, lots of free stuff. Fringe Sunday - usually the second Sunday - is a
smorgasbord of free performances, staged in the Meadows park to the south of the city centre.
The Fringe takes place over 3½ weeks, the last two weeks overlapping with the first two of the Edinburgh Inter-
national Festival.
Edinburgh International Festival
First held in 1947 to mark a return to peace after the ordeal of WWII, the Edinburgh International Festival (
0131-473 2099; www.eif.co.uk ) is festooned with superlatives - the oldest, the biggest, the most famous, the best in
the world. The original was a modest affair, but today hundreds of the world's top musicians and performers con-
gregate in Edinburgh for three weeks of diverse and inspirational music, opera, theatre and dance.
The festival takes place over the three weeks ending on the first Saturday in September; the program is usually
available from April. Tickets for popular events - especially music and opera - sell out quickly, so it's best to book
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