Simply the fest
scottish high times
Crazy, vibrant and forever surprising: if you’re looking for a big culture hit, there’s nothing quite like the Edinburgh Festival. Here film and theatre insider James Mullighan picks the gems from the garbage, and gives his tips on how to navigate the sheer variety on offer this August
words by James Mullighan
Welcome to the greatest show on Earth. Every August, Edinburgh – the historic Scottish capital – lifts up its skirts, hosting a phenomenal array of arts happenings. For sheer variety, there’s nothing quite like it.
How big, then? Well, a million visitors descend throughout the month for this feast of theatre, comedy, art, music, dance and film. The flagship Edinburgh International Festival is over 50 years old, and is the greatest celebration in the world of high art. Its scruffier little brother, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, is slightly younger, and itself the biggest arts festival in the world. Last year at the Fringe alone, over a million tickets sold to 28,000 performances of some 2,000 different shows. It grows annually by a whopping 17% on average, and now cheekily claims that it is the Festival, and the Festival should be called the Fringe.
The Edinburgh Book Festival is the biggest celebration of the written word in the English speaking world. The Edinburgh International Film Festival is the UK’s second biggest, and the world’s longest running film festival. Then there’s the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, the Jazz and Blues Festival, the Edinburgh Art Festival, the Edinburgh TV Festival. There’s even a Festival Erotique. Readers of the Rough Guide series of city guides recently voted Edinburgh in August to be the number one tourist experience in the United Kingdom.
The wealth of events can seem somewhat overwhelming, but fear not: Sterling’s guide to Edinburgh in August is here to help. As you read this, tickets have been on sale for over a month, and accomodation will be getting snapped up. For the latter, use the Edinburgh Official Tourist Board’s website (www.edinburgh.org) or the message boards at the Edinburgh Fringe website (www.edfring.com). Many Edinburghians take advantage of the influx and rent out their apartments, and so there are excellent central self-catering options.
This is a stunningly beautiful city, redolent with history, and spectacularly part-perched on an ancient volcano, at the mouth of the Firth of Forth (an estuary on the North Sea). Festivals aside, there are dozens of highlights: visit the Castle; climb up Calton Hill whose Acropolis-style monuments lend the city one of its nicknames: the Athens of the North; climb Arthur’s Seat – a high peak in Holyrood Park; visit the Burns memorial; lose an hour in the Scottish National Gallery or Portrait Gallery; wander from the Castle down the Royal Mile – the spine of the medieval Old Town – down to the royal residence The Palace of Hollyroodhouse; and visit the architecturally sensational new Scottish Parliament opposite.
Down now to the real business of Edinburgh in August: seeing shows. Visiting in the first few days of the Festivals will give you the advantage of cheap ticketing deals, but shows often at that point can be a little unrehearsed. The best time to visit is the third weekend, when all the Festivals are concurrent.
If it’s high-production-value theatre, dance and classical music you crave, book ahead for the International Festival. The new Festival Director, Australian composer Jonathan Mills, has centred his first programme around mythology, allegory and the birth of opera, exploring how opera, theatre, dance and music all share a special ability to “reveal the dignity and fragility of the human spirit.” Highlights include Jordi Savall and his orchestra Hespèrion XXI in Monteverdi’s masterpiece Orfeo. The Cologne Opera is visiting with Richard Strauss’s rarely performed Capriccio, and the new National Theatre of Scotland’s ambitious production of Euripedes The Bacchae stars Scottish actor Alan Cummins as Dionysus, in his first appearance on stage in his homeland in 17 years. Take advantage of the thousands of cheap tickets to top quality classical music concerts that go on offer in the cavernous Usher Hall.
Most visit Edinburgh for the Fringe festival. With its telephone book-sized catalogue, some 2,050 shows in over 250 venues, it can be a bewildering experience. The quality varies wildly as well, ranging from full-scale polished productions, to bum-numbingly earnest student gigs. Each venue tends to have its own box office; a few loosely affiliated venues sell each other’s tickets. The Fringe Box Office will sell most as well, although not all. Choosing what to see is part of the adventure: the whole town is festooned with posters, and you can barely move along the Royal Mile in daytime for the throng of costumed flyerthrusting thespians, practically begging you to see their shows. (Careful: if a show needs to flyer itself, it usually needs an audience, rather than the other way round). Get copies of all the brochures, and while away a couple of hours flicking through them, marking shows that attract your attention. There’s nothing like simply talking to other punters and gathering recommendations. The national newspaper The Scotsman publishes a daily guide Monday to Saturday; Fringe shows can live or die by its reviews. Be wary of the tips from smaller, free publications whose often inexperienced journalists can get over-excited about the free tickets, and tend to hand out their garlands willy-nilly.
Here are some must-see theatre tips you can depend on: Firstly, for top comedy head to The Traverse, Scotland’s home of new writing, which is hosting Jerry Spring the Opera writer/comedian Stewart Lee’s show about Scottish diarist and author James Boswell. Also, try to get to the Aurora Nova in St Stephens, which has fast established itself as the home of quality dance and physical theatre on the Fringe. Two hot tickets at the Assembly rooms are the World War One show Forgotten Voices, and the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation all-sung drama Truth in Translation.
And at the lighter end of the spectrum, try Auto Auto at the Pleasance, which has two musicians dissecting an Opal car and playing music on the parts to comic effect. There’s a swathe of musicals as well, with subjects as diverse as Osama, Auschwitz, transsexuals and Tony Blair.
About a third of Fringe shows make up the Edinburgh Comedy Festival (you guessed it: the biggest in the world). Three venues have the lion’s share (Assembly, Pleasance and Gilded Balloon) but it’s worth casting your net wider. Try The Stand, a year-round venue that the comedians themselves love playing, or the Tron Pub in Hunter Square. Really big names tend not to do the full, gruelling month, but some pop in for one night: British TV star Ricky Gervais (The Office) is expected to play Edinburgh Castle on 26 August. One good way to sample the comedy is to go to a midnight-til-dawn club experience, where several good names make up the bill. Spank! at the Underbelly, is the liveliest, and Late ’n’ Live at the Gilded Balloon is an Edinburgh institution.
Edinburgh’s comedy build-up culminates in the IF.comeddies awards (formerly the Perriers but now named after new sponsors). These awards make careers: among the first winners in 1981 were a certain Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson; other previous winners include British comedians Eddie Izzard, Steve Coogan and Lee Evans. No wonder there’s always a frenzy for tickets to the shortlisted shows.
What lies beyond the Fringe? Although the limelight is firmly on stage productions, there’s plenty for film buffs too. The Film Festival’s programme was unpublished as Sterling went to press, but this perenially popular festival always has some treats. Leave nothing to chance: auditoria are small and sell out fast. Try to get into the Secret Film, a surprise screening, and keep an eye open for stand-by tickets at each venue’s box office.
A more traditional must-see is the twice-nightly Military Tattoo (Scottish pipers) at Edinburgh Castle, at the top of the Royal Mile; in 2007 the Tattoo doubles as a celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Wedding Anniversary. And having come all the way to Edinburgh, it would be a shame not to sample some of the out-of-town delights, too, such as Stirling Castle, which dates back to the 11th century, or the wild coastline nearby. Though to be realistic, hold off making any plans until you’re fully ensconced in the 24-hour whirl that is the festival. The odds are you won’t want to step foot outside the city.
eating&drinking
The Villager (49-50 George IV Bridge, +44 (0)131 226 2781) A funky retro bar and restaurant. Cocktails from £5.20.
The Outhouse (12a Broughton Street Lane +44 (0)131 557 6668) This café-bar with a beer garden is a good option in hot weather.
Ensign Ewart (521 Lawnmarket +44 (0)131 225 7440) A traditional Scottish pub in the Old Town, dating back to 1690. Serves food all day
Sygn (15 Charlotte Lane +44 (0)131 225 6060) A high-style concept bar and restaurant, identified by a pink triangle rather than a name. They serve lavish portions of global grub with an Asian slant.
The Patio (87 Hanover Street +44 (0)131 226 3653) An Italian restaurant specialising in seafood. Children are welcome.
The Apartment (7-13 Barclay Place +44 (0)131 228 6456) A hip eaterie on the edge of the New Town, though portions are larger than you’d expect in a fashionable restaurant. Dinner only.
festival diary
26 July – 2 September
Art Festival
Includes a major Warhol retrospective.
www.edinburghartfestival.org
27 July – 5 August
Jazz and Blues Festival
Free events include the Mardi Gras and Jazz On A Summer’s Day.
+44 (0)131 437 2000
www.edinburghjazzfestival.co.uk
27 July – 2 September
The Spiegeltent
A music and cabaret salon.
+44 (0)131 226 0000
www.spiegeltent.net
3-25 August
Military Tattoo
Massed pipers at Edinburgh Castle.
+44 (0)8707 555 118
www.edintattoo.co.uk
5-26 August
Festival of Spirituality and Peace
This year’s theme marks 200 years since the British abolished slavery.
www.festivalofspirituality.org.uk
5-27 August
Festival Fringe
As many as 2,050 shows in 250 venues, of which 304 are free.
+44 (0)131 226 0026
www.edfringe.com
10 August – 2 September
International Festival
Classical music, theatre, opera and dance, now in its 60th year.
+44 (0)131 473 2000
www.eif.co.uk
11-27 August
International Book Festival
Hundreds of ‘meet the author’ events.
www.edbookfest.co.uk
15-26 August
International Film Festival
Launching high-brow celluloid.
+44 (0)131 623 8030
www.edfilmfest.org.uk
25 August
IF.comeddies awards
These comedy awards based on festival acts are real kingmakers on the British comedy scene and beyond.
www.if.com/eddies/index.html
venues to watch
Traverse Theatre
The crucible of new Scottish writing. Productions are of a high standard and tend to sell out fast. 10 Cambridge Street, +44 (0)131 228 1404
www.traverse.co.uk
Komedia
A relative newcomer, Komedia has fast established itself as a one-stop venue for the finest in physical theatre and dance.
www.komedia.co.uk/edinburgh.php
Pleasance
One of the ‘Big Three’ Fringe venues, the Pleasance hosts top-name comedy and theatre. 23 Dome Pleasance, 33 Courtyard Pleasance
+44 (0)131 556 6550
www.pleasance.co.uk/edinburgh
Gilded Balloon
The next big gun, productions here can be a little more adventurous than other venues’, and it boasts legendary bear-pit comedy night Late ’n’ Live.
Teviot Row House, Bristo Square
+44 (0)131 668 1633
www.gildedballoon.co.uk
Assembly
Forerunner of the big Fringe venues, you could spend all your festival days here and not run out of things to see. Increasingly pricey, though.
54 George Street +44 (0)131 623 3030
www.assemblyrooms.com
C Venues
A scruffier alternative to the Big Three, C has venues all over the city, though quality varies wildly. Lots of energetic and enthusiastic student productions, with some real gems, too.
www.cthefestival.com
Underbelly
Housed in damp, smelly, old bank vaults, the Underbelly is a joyous, sweaty, truly gritty Fringe experience. Don’t miss comedy/cabaret Spank!, after midnight every night.
61 Cowgate, +44 (0)870 745 3083
www.underbelly.co.uk/edinburgh
The Stand Comedy Club
The two venues here are home base, yearround, for Edinburgh’s comedy scene.
5 York Place, +44 (0)131 558 7272
www.thestand.co.uk
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