Last month I asked the question, “will Enron repeat its West End success on Broadway?”. We now have the answer to this question, which is a categorical no! The show, which had its last performance on Sunday lasted for only 15 performances. It was hoped that the show would be as successful at the […]

This August sees the start of the worlds largest culture, theatre, arts and music festival – the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe. Although these two are often conflated, and indeed they do operate as one great whole in a wider cultural sense, they are not just one festival, but in fact many festivals all running at the same time.

The Edinburgh Festival dates back to 1947 as an initiative to re-unite Europe through culture and celebration in order to “provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit” in the dark days after the Second World War. Suffice to say that the festival attracted more performers than there was room for and its fame and continued success was assured from then on. The ‘extras’ formed their own Fringe event that ran at the same time as the official Edinburgh Festival, creating a vibrant and exciting atmosphere wherever you go in the city, from grand theatres and music halls to streets corners and bars.

Alongside the original International Festival, with its classical and contemporary theatre, music, opera and dance, and the Fringe with every weird and wonderful sort of performance arts you can imagine, running over the same period in August there is a Jazz festival, a Swing Festival, a Literature/book festival, a South Asian Mela festival, and even more unusual festivals including Internet, Interactive, ‘Peoples’, Politics, Spirituality & Peace, Swing, Harvest, several Art festivals and a Military tattoo.

If you like theatre, be it classical, contemporary, avant-guard, or anything else for that matter, the Edinburgh festival is the place to be. In fact, if you love acting or have any other performance skills that you want to sharpen in an environment conducive to creativity, why not head to Edinburgh this August and just perform on a street corner for yourself. Be warned though, you will be one of thousands doing the same…