Edinburgh Festival of the Arts
For three weeks every August, the capital city of Edinburgh is one big showplace of entertainment. The city’s streets along with every pub, theatre, club, and empty room are the scenes of a massive wave of plays, concerts, book fairs, art shows, and more. For the tourist as well as the Scots, it’s the place to be. It’s one case where there literally is something for everyone.
The tradition started out after W.W. II as a way to re-unite people and the city, and while it started out on a small scale, it has now grown to almost 1.4 million tickets sold in 2005. There are ancillary festivals going on at the same time, which means that if one thing is sold out, you’ll get into something else you want.
The main festival itself is all types of performance art from street buskers to large theatre productions by mainstream writers, actors, musical performers and the list goes one endlessly. They come from all over the world to form the largest arts festival anywhere in the world. Last year there were 1800 different shows and almost 29,000 tickets sold for various performances, and that doesn’t even count the additional satellite festivals happening at the same time. Some shows are even free so a trip to the festival and getting a feel for it doesn’t even have to be expensive!
The real trick is to find a room in Edinburgh or somewhere nearby so you can wander the city deciding what might be fun to do, but since the city gears up for this, you will find many websites to help. From the festival’s website, you can get a program and once you can have a look, it’s just working out your days and nights. Part of the fun is trying to decide WHAT to see, and it becomes a fun game. Some tourists from overseas will combine the festival with a more extensive tour of Scotland and other parts of the U.K., but there are many who schedule vacations solely to attend as much of the festival as they can. When an entire city is caught up in an event this huge, the feeling is contagious and you just want to be there! Some tickets are long since sold out so don’t worry âÂ?¦there’s plenty more. From morning to night, it rocks. As an added bonus, most of the pubs in Edinburgh stay open until 3 a.m. each night so the party continues with pub crawling and dancing till dawn.
This is a great urban adventure and a very different way to get to know a great city. So get busy planning and get yourself to Edinburgh in August!
Here’s how to get started:
1. Find a room. Check the net and I’ve given you some sites to start with.
2. Download the Festival program and check-off everything you might be interested in seeing.
3. Work out your transport to get to Edinburgh. You don’t need a car one you get there either!
4. Rest up and have a good attitude when you get there. It’s an adventure!
5. Roll with the flow and enjoy the world’s biggest culture party.
