Edinburgh Fringe Festival

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Enjoy A Carnival Atmosphere At The Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Scotland Events > Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Scotland’s capital city is invaded every august when around 17,000 international performers arrive for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

One of the world's largest arts events, the Festival stages more than 2,000 shows in hundreds of theatres, inspiring people to put on shows ranging from Shakespeare to modern works. The Fringe attracts events mainly from the performing arts, in particular drama and comedy, dance and music. It all started in 1947 when eight theatre companies turned up uninvited to the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival. This festival is a forum for ideas and achievement not only for groups in the UK, but worldwide. Many groups use the Fringe with the ultimate goal being a good review of their works.

The Fringe has grown dramatically over the last 60 years, showcasing a great deal of local Scottish talent, with many local clubs and individuals taking part. In the field of comedy, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has given a platform to allow the careers of many performers to bloom.

The basic idea behind the Fringe is to give performers of all types with any level of experience a venue to perform. This guarantees something for everyone, from plays and movies to stand up comedy and music. The Fringe has always maintained an open access policy, and the biggest problem can be deciding what to watch, and where, as locations in the past have included hotel rooms, pubs, shops and even a lift.

Over 1 million tickets are sold every year and many big-name comedy stars travel from all over the world to "test the water" with their new material at the Fringe before embarking on their respective world tours.

The Scotsman newspaper introduced the prestigious Fringe First awards way back in 1973, and ever since then there has been growing number of awards for Fringe shows, particularly in the field of drama.

So if you enjoy musicals, operas, burlesque shows, jazz and other literary and performing arts then the Fringe Festival is for you, but plan your trip early as the streets will be overflowing with patrons of the arts.

The 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival is from 3rd-25th August.

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