This year, the world’s largest performing arts festival will stage 3,649 shows from 71 countries across 258 venues, culminating in a “mammoth” 53,884 performances, said Annie Lewis in Luxury London.
The festival has helped turbocharge the careers of Rowan Atkinson, Steve Coogan, Judi Dench and countless other names in the creative industries, and gives newcomers the chance for their big break. Here’s all you need to know about the nation’s favourite celebration of the arts.
What is the Fringe?
The event began unofficially in 1947 as an addition to the Edinburgh International Festival, set up to celebrate European culture after the Second World War. Eight small theatre companies made the trip to the capital that year to perform after the main festival closed, and the official Fringe Festival Society was created in 1958.
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Now in its 79th year, the Fringe has “become so vastly bigger that it’s no longer the fringe of anything”, said Andrzej Lukowski, theatre editor at Time Out. It always runs for three weeks in August – this year from 7 to 31 August – though in reality shows will often preview on a day or two before the official start.
Why go?
“Truly, all human life is here,” said Tristram Fane Saunders in The Telegraph. Nowhere else in the world would you find performances of “Endometriosis: The Musical!”, “Robot Wars with Roombas” or “Chekhov in Flemish Sign Language”. Some of the biggest names in the comedy industry continue to return, with Frank Skinner, Nish Kumar and Catherine Bohart, James Acaster and Sara Pascoe all making appearances this year.
But the main appeal of the Fringe is that it’s not “awash with big names”. This is the place where people “go to see the comedy stars of the future before they’re famous”. Traditionally, many of the performances have been free, operating a pay-as-you-feel policy. If ticketed, shows are generally under £20 across the city's theatres, pubs and streets.
There are many other fascinating festivals in the city running at the same time. There’s the aforementioned Edinburgh International Festival and the “hugely popular” Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which involves a “series of fancy military parades”, said Lukowski in Time Out. If any more reason is needed to flock to the city, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh Art Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival are taking place close by.
What should you see?
“Comedy is king,” said Saunders in The Telegraph. Perhaps the festival’s most “controversial” stand-up show this year will be Amanda Knox’s “Cartwheel”. Wrongfully convicted in 2007 of the murder of Meredith Kercher, Knox wrestles with how to “explain her life-story to her young daughter”. Tickets are also almost sold out for “rising star” of “Saturday Night Live UK” Ania Magliano and her show “Peach Fuzz”, as well as previous Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Ahir Shah, “one of the most intelligent voices in stand-up”, back with “Golden”.
There’s a “great mix” of “returning shows, debuts and even some world premiere runs” in drama too, said Kevin Quinn in Edinburgh Evening News. Director Emma Howlett’s “ambitious” female-led “The Plot” is a tragi-comic “fast-paced, imaginative exploration of power, truth and the stories” set in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot. Writer and actress Hannah Reilly’s acclaimed “Roleplay” also serves up a “bold, provocative and darkly funny” depiction of a “broke feminist podcaster who rebrands as a provocative ‘slutfluencer’ in pursuit of fame”.
