Edinburgh fringe festival kicks off
One of the biggest arts festivals in the world, featuring performances from stars including Jo Brand and Bill Bailey, was officially getting under way today.
The 57th Edinburgh Festival Fringe will see more than 21,000 performances of over 1,500 shows being staged in a record 207 venues across the city.
To mark the start of the festival, organisers are offering audiences a two-for-one ticket offer on the majority of shows being staged today and tomorrow.
The record number of venues are being used despite the havoc wreaked by the fire in Edinburgh’s Old Town which devastated three regular festival sites at the end of last year.
The Fringe has long had a reputation for hosting weird and wonderful shows in unusual settings and this year is no exception.
Venues include a man-made waterfall where dance group Materiali Resistenti will perform under 16,000 litres of cascading water in the capital’s Old College Quad.
Theatre group Semper Fi will perform their show Ladies and Gents in a public toilet behind Edinburgh’s St James Centre while comedian Alfie Joey will entertain four people in his car every afternoon – one in the front seat and three in the back.
Meanwhile the world premiere of a show called Toast will be performed on a stepladder and No Room On Top, a comedy show, can be seen in a double decker bus.
Other highlights of the Fringe, which runs until August 25, include performances by Julian Clary, Perrier Award winner Daniel Kitson and Dylan Thomas – Return Journey, directed by Anthony Hopkins.
Meanwhile, a festival cavalcade starring around 2,500 performers which will snake its way through the city centre this afternoon.
The cavalcade will be led by a pack of bikers on Harley Davidsons.
Organisers say that, if the weather is fine, the event could attract up to 150,000 spectators.
