Edinburgh Festival - Trying something New

As things calm down in Scotland’s largest city following the Common Wealth Games, things start to heat up in our Capital. Throughout August, Edinburgh is brought to life with the world’s largest arts festival. The Royal Mile is filled with Fringe performers, tourists, random celebrities and often some very different (I originally wrote odd but I thought I’d better be polite) people encouraging you to go to their shows. Living very close to Edinburgh, I’ve always tried to take full advantage of the Festival. Edinburgh is a beautiful city at the best of times, but when the Festival is on it’s spectacular. 

Normally I’m a comedy girl. There’s certainly no lack of choice - you have everything from the bigger names like John Bishop and Mark Watson to some some amazing up and comers. My friends and I normally head to the box office to see what we can get tickets for and spend our evening laughing away. Recently, I realised that I’ve actually only been experiencing one part of the Festival. Edinburgh International Festival starts on the 8th of August and will showcase some extremely talented and innovative dancers, musicians and actors from around the world. Then the following day, the Edinburgh Book Festival starts (more on this later). I was recently invited to the press event to find out more and was amazed at just how wrong my previous perceptions of the International Festival were. I always assumed it was a bit stuffy but in reality it’s about bringing the arts to a larger audience.

This year the Edinburgh International Festival is exploring the impact of history, particularly during times of war and unrest, and the influence this has on society and culture. There are numerous talks from academics to give a better incite into this if history is your thing. However, for those who’s heads this might go over (myself included), there is an abundance of music, dancing and theatre to choose from. And if you’re overwhelmed by the amount of choice they have a handy little feature on their website. Suggest My Fest lets you choose the type of thing you like e.g. risky or familiar, classic or contemporary, epic or intimate or whether it’s a thinker and gives suggestions as to the type of thing you might like. A very handy little tool if you’re like me and don’t have much of a clue where to start.

I'm really looking forward to going to a few shows and seeing something a bit different.

Are you going to be in Edinburgh during the Festival?