Edinburgh Fringe Festival
One of my favourite festivals in the world is without a doubt Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival. The festival is the biggest arts festival in the entire world and takes over the entire city for three weeks in August.
Thousands of performers descend on the city and perform in all different locations dotted all over Edinburgh. There are shows, talks, performances, live music and so much going on throughout the city. The performers range from big names such as Ricky Gervais, Christian Slater, Emma Thompson and Rowan Atkinson to people you have never heard of before who are performing for the first time ever.
The beauty of the Fringe Festival is that absolutely anyone is free to perform and there is no board of directors who chose who can and can’t start a show. This paves the way for creative individuals to showcase their talents to the thousands of visitors to the show each year.
There are also a large number of shows that are entirely free on throughout the Fringe Festival schedule which means this is a festival that can be enjoyed by absolutely everyone, including those without vast fortunes to spend on entrance tickets. Of course the larger and more popular events do come at a price however, they are usually very reasonable and most of the time are great value.
With such a massive influx of people Edinburgh has a real hedonistic buzz about it for the entire month of August. People come from all over the world to take part in and to visit Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival and it never disappoints.
One of the highlights of a visit to Edinburgh during August is a visit to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, an event which attracts over 200,000 people per year and is seen by over 100 million people worldwide on television. It has to be something special to attract those kinds of numbers!
The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo takes place on the esplanade of the imposing site of Edinburgh Castle, at one of the highest points in the city. The performers are British Armed Forces, Commonwealth and international bands and there is music from hundreds of pipes and drums. The Tattoo normally culminates in a massive explosion of fireworks which light up the city and are a magical sight to see.
The official 2015 commercial for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will give you a sneak peak at what you can expect.
Tickets for events at the Fringe Festival, and for The Tattoo, sell out notoriously quickly but if you haven’t managed to get your hands on any then don’t hesitate to visit Scotland’s capital city anyway. There are hundreds of street entertainers, free shows and non-ticketed events that you can still enjoy. Plus there’s also a designated box office which releases extra tickets at the last minute and allows people to buy cancelled tickets from those who are no longer able to attend.
Would YOU like to attend Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival?
Have you been already?
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I’m Emma, a twenty-something Scottish girl who’s obsessed with travel.
I’ve been to 38 countries so far and had some incredible adventures around the world.
My passion for travel and writing led me to create my person blog Emma’s Travel Tales.