THE EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL
Edinburgh Fringe Office
Fringe 2009, Tattoo start 7th - End 29th August. What is known as the Edinburgh festival is in fact an umbrella term as this encompasses many different festivals of many varieties which take place around the city of Edinburgh as the same time. Primarily, we have the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival and also the Blues, Television, Jazz and Book Festivals. This is in addition to the Edinburgh Tattoo and the Mela Asian Festival. Simply, the largest Art gathering in the World by a wide margin, with over 16000 performances from over 800 companies and around 12000 participants. With around 1500 shows every day in over 200 venues, 24/7, it simply cannot be beaten on sheer numbers, leaving any other contender miles off. Started in 1947, the first fringe programme appeared in 1951 with just a single sheet. In fact for the first thirty years or so since its inception, the fringe was really dominated by Oxbridge Students and talent Scouts (Scouting the Oxbridge acts) and it was really only since the mid 1970's that the fringe festival really broadened its appeal and grown dramatically over the last quarter of the century. COMEDYThe big success story of the fringe is Comedy, producing probably the majority of theUK's“serious” comedians (too numerous to mention, in fact it probably would be easier to mention those who have not performed at the fringe). THEATREThe majority of the Fringe is surprisingly not Comedy as you may expect, but theatre. Otherthan the numerous Student productions, there is a wide variety of theatre from classical Shakespeare to more modern (and often innovative) productions. MUSICMany recitals and Concerts. Professionally its hard to beat the “Rehearsal Orchestra”performing during a two week season of classics, it has run since the Mid 1950's making it theoldest fringe music event. More eclectically minded people can find many World, folk, and evenBlues and Jazz (even though it has its own separate festival) performances. With “T on theFringe” often attracting popular rock and pop acts.
More popular performance are usually booked by the Assembly Rooms or Gilded Balloon, and often the Stand.
Ticket prices vary by performance and start at £5 pounds, although the average is around £10 to £15 pounds. This is usually for (on average) an hours performance.
HOW TO FIND OUT MORE:
Daily the Fringe produces “The Guide” giving performances for that day, but the Scotsman, Guardian and Edinburgh Evening News are all excellent sources of information during the fringe period. The List also covers the Festival in depth , and is pretty indispensable. Buy it whilst in Edinburgh.
The Festival fringe office can be contacted on +44 (0)131 226 0000 (www.edfringe.com).
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