My 30-year love affair with Edinburgh's summer festivals

The Herald Scotland

5 days ago

Some of those participating over the next few weeks will almost certainly have spent months, if not the last year, working on shows, programmes or entire festivals.
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Other unsung folk working behind-the-scenes will be simply trying to ensure the city simply keeps on running on smoothly as possible.
There will undoubtedly be many people living and working in the city centre who simply cannot wait for the circus to leave town.
The Hub is the home of the Edinburgh International Festival. (Image: Andrew Perry)
But I'm sure they are vastly outnumbered by those people who simply cannot get enough of the celebration of culture that explodes on their doorstep every August and will be filling hundreds of venues across the city now until the end of the month.
I've been one of them for 30 years now.
My first encounter was when I decided to stay in Edinburgh for the summer after my first year studying journalism.
Baby Reindeer star Richard Gadd regularly performed in small venues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (Image: Supplied)
I couldn't believe the transformation of the normally quiet closes and courtyards of the Royal Mile as I found them filled with noise, colour and, well, chaos. Every time I walked past The Mound I found myself drawn in by the huge crowds gathered around street performers.
It was completely intoxicating, even if the only tickets I bought were for a couple of late-night shows towards the end of the month.
Australian performer Tim Minchin made his Fringe debut at the Gilded Balloon 20 years ago. A later I was living near the bottom of the Broughton Street, which I quickly discovered was in close proximity to several Fringe venues.
One of them was a school playground where a Polish theatre company, some of whom were performing on stints, staged a terrifying production inspired by the horrors of the war in Bosnia.
George Square is transformed by venues for Edinburgh's festivals. (Image: Alistair Leith)
Nearby churches were turned into venues which ran round-the-clock with music and theatre programmes packed full of international performers.
The garden of one of these churches became a favourite place to hang out in between shows on countless balmy summer evenings. But the other local bars and restaurants buzzed with conversation from people from around the world.
When September came, and the performers had packed up and left, it was something of a relief, but the streets seemed so much greyer than had been just a few days before.
The summer was the start love affair with the festivals that I'm still as passionate about as ever.
I have missed just one festival since then, when I inexplicably went on holiday to Bilbao only to find that its own summer festival - which was largely staged after dark - was on.
It's since become an unmissable and all-consuming feast for the senses for me.
A big part of the enduring appeal of the festivals is that so much about them feels familiar, welcoming and even reassuring. Much of that is down to Edinburgh's array of remarkable venues.
Those that are here all year take on another life entirely in August, when Summerhall's courtyard, the Filmhouse cafe and the Traverse bar are abuzz with excitable chatter about the latest hot tickets or festival gossip.
Others stalwarts like The Stand and Monkey Barrel comedy clubs take over as many nearby spaces as possible to try to satisfy demand from their fiercely loyal performers and audiences.
Some festival hotspots are eerily quiet the rest of the year, such as the Pleasance Courtyard and George Square, but become entire festival villages in August.
Other venues, such as St Giles' Cathedral, or the Scottish Storytelling Centre, which has a terrific garden tucked away off the Royal Mile, offer vital space to simply chill out and contemplate as the festival swirls around them.
An undoubted benefit of the festivals is how they both open and encourage public access to places and spaces most people would probably never go to.
I cannot imagine how else I would have ventured inside Freemasons' Hall on George Street, the Royal Scots Club on Abercromby Place, the Ukrainian Community Centre on Royal Terrace or the Hibernian Supporters Club off Easter Road.
Although the cost of accommodation in Edinburgh is notoriously eye-watering, the single biggest selling point of the festivals themselves is how affordable they are.
With more than 4000 events to choose from, the sheer level of competition has pegged ticket prices back.
Hundreds of shows and events are either free or offer pay-what-you-want deals, with many other tickets costing less than the price of a pint.
The average cost of a Fringe ticket is around £12, most book and film festival tickets are only marginally more expensive and the Edinburgh International Festival sells seats for as little as £10, including for on the day concessions.
Many festivalgoers, especially those resident in the city, are fiercely loyal to their favourite shows and performers, returning year after year to see them.
Others will spend almost their entire festival at the one event or venue. After all, a large chunk of Fringe audiences is made up of people performing or working on other shows, who know exactly what it takes to get onto a stage in Edinburgh.
For me, the festival season is all about the thrill of the new and especially the prospect of seeing a star of the future emerge from obscurity.
While the Fringe in particular is awash with hype for months in advance these days, there is something particularly thrilling about its first few days, when shows finally open and word of mouth takes over.
I learned long ago to keep plenty of space clear in my diary for shows I have not previously heard about which suddenly become the talk of the town.
I wasn't lucky enough to catch Steve Coogan, Kevin Bridges, Peter Kay or Phoebe Waller-Bridge on their way to the top, but I did see Frankie Boyle, Johnny Vegas, Tim Minchin, Fern Brady and Richard Gadd perform in some of the smallest rooms in the city.
At the start of August, no-one in Edinburgh knows which performers and shows will be winning over audiences, making the headlines and taking home five-star reviews. It's probably the one thing which fills me real enthusiasm as the festival city takes shape and throws opens its doors.
Even the most hardened of festivalgoers will be familiar with the sinking feeling of running out of time to catch a show the rest of the city seems to be talking about or, even worse, being unable to secure a ticket.
But they will also know the thrill of a successful hustle outside a venue or a last-minute return at the box office.