Edinburgh Fringe Festival

For three weeks in every August since 1947, the Edinburgh fringe festival has been the biggest music, comedy and arts festival in the world, and probably will be for some time in the foreseeable future. Each year the festival only grows bigger, becoming increasingly more eclectic and cosmopolitan in its culturing offerings. Not only does the festival offers a variety of culture to suit all tastes, but it is also a place where acts of varying degrees of fame can all be seen performing one after another, allowing amateur performers to rub shoulders with celebrities and their heroes. The Edinburgh Fringe festival is indeed a great place for talent scouts to spot potential superstars.

During the festival period, you will be lucky to book yourself into any of the popular Edinburgh city centre hotel choices, so book early!

The inception of the festival is an interesting story in itself. Shortly after the Second World War,  a handful of theatre groups gatecrashed the Edinburgh International Festival, as they felt that they were receiving insufficient attention from the media and the public. The name of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has a literal origin; the performers would erect stages around the outskirts of the Edinburgh International Festival and perform to any passers by for free, just for the sake of attention. Over the years, many more theatre troupes and performers flocked to the area and followed their example. It wasn’t until over twelve years later that the Edinburgh Fringe Festival became officially recognised and separate from the Edinburgh International Festival. In fact, the whole event exploded so rapidly in popularity that it was copied to some extent by the people of Glasgow in an attempt to increase tourism and fill the central Glasgow hotel, although this was not incredibly successful.

Perhaps the greatest feature of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is its open door policy to newcomers, allowing anyone with any length or quality of act to participate. This is absolutely fantastic to amateur performers, as above all else the thing that they value most is recognition.