Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Edinburgh Festival
WHEN THE WORLD COMES TO SCOTLAND
The cultural highlight of any year in Edinburgh arrives every summer with the famous
Edinburgh Festival. The center of the Scottish capital, which is already busy with tourists,
becomes chock-a-block with gawking visitors and savvy residents, maneuvering amid all
sorts of street performers, who try to cajole and lure people to come to the stages where
they are performing properly.
The Festival (as everyone simply calls it)
centers today on the
Festival Fringe
.
As the name implies, this was not originally
the focus of the event. Indeed the Festival
began with the
Edinburgh International
Festival
, which was inaugurated in
1947. It continues to attract internationally
accomplished performers in classical music,
opera, ballet, and drama.
But the Fringe has eclipsed it in popular-
ity and scope. Initially it was avant-garde
theater and topical drama. The notoriety—
indeed fame—of the Fringe was cemented
by the now legendary revue act called
Beyond the Fringe, which featured the tal-
ents of Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan
Bennett, and Jonathan Miller. Additionally,
other early stars at the Fringe became
members of comedy group Monty Python.
Today, the Fringe presents some 2,000
shows at nearly 250 venues. It provides an
opportunity for almost anybody—profes-
sional or nonprofessional, an individual, a
group of friends, or a whole company—to
put on a show wherever they can find an
empty stage or street corner. The range is
mind-boggling: A gospel choir from Soweto,
penis puppetry, or avant-garde theater.
Comedy still dominates the Fringe, which
always draws some of the top English-
speaking funny men and women, whether
Americans Rich Hall and Janeane Garofalo
or Britain's Stephen K. Amos and Bill Bailey.
For up-and-coming jokesters and comedic
actors, a breakthrough and critically
acclaimed run at the Fringe can help estab-
lish a successful international career. Such
was the case for Demetri Martin recently
and Lee Evans, Emma Thompson, Stephen
Fry, Robbie Coltrane, Frank Skinner, Billy
Connolly, Rowan Atkinson, Jo Brand, Lily
Savage (Paul O'Grady), Steve Coogan, and
Paul Merton over the years. The Fringe has
become increasingly established and corpo-
rate-sponsored, but it retains its aura of the
experimental and unexpected.
My advice when faced with a mind-bog-
gling array of performances all at one time
is to 1] take recommendations from the
List
magazine,
The Guardian
, and other media
coverage; 2] combine some very cheap
shows with some top-name acts, 3] keep
going until you cannot go any further, and 4]
go a bit further and hit a pub in the small
hours to share your experiences with others.
The International Festival generally
highlights classical music, performed by
orchestras and chamber groups. Queen's
Hall on the city's Southside usually has day-
long schedules of concerts. As if all this
wasn't enough, Edinburgh also hosts other
festivals in the period between late July
and early September. In Charlotte Square,
the international
Book Festival
has
become a large annual event, drawing
authors such as J. K. Rowling and Toni Mor-
rison. Big top tents are thrown up to house
hundreds that come for readings and lec-
tures. The venue also includes an excellent
temporary bookshop, good for finding
gems too often not available in the big
corporate bookshops. Finally, the Festival
also incorporates an international
Jazz &
Blues Festival
, a visual
Art Festival,
and
a more industry-oriented
Television Festi-
val.
Until a few years ago, an international
Film Festival was held concurrently, but it is
now held in June.
There's more. One of the hardest tickets
to get is the annual military Tattoo on the
Castle esplanade for impressive precision
marching and pipe playing (see below).
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