Theater, art, and Haggis! A guide to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Each week, Gadling is taking a look at our favorite festivals around the world. From music festivals to cultural showcases to the just plain bizarre, we hope to inspire you to do some festival exploring of your own. Come back each Wednesday for our picks or find them all HERE.

Known as the “largest festival on Earth, Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival has something for everyone. From students donning kilts wanting to groove to the newest Jazz singers to street performers on stilts, this annual festival is an adventure where the energy flows into the streets and makes everyone feel like a performing artist for the day. The Fringe has come a long way: from its 1947 beginnings with only eight theater companies, to the present day festival, which sells over 1.8 million tickets each year! Tourists now travel from around the globe to experience this extraordinary event.

Begun by the Festival Fringe Society as an “open access festival” allowing unrestricted exhibition by anyone interested in performing, the modern version of the festival now features some of the world’s most unique and avant-garde artistic and theatrical pursuits. The shows range from dramatic Shakespeare told from the perspective of dinosaurs to puppets singing show tunes. However, the performances are only half of the experience that comes along with the price of the ticket. What else happens at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? Keep reading below.

With over 34,000 performances taking place over three weeks, the word ‘venue’ takes on a whole new meaning at the Edinburgh Fringe. The performance spaces range from a traditional stage to more progressive bars to classrooms with floor seating to places not so appealing like toilets!

Shows start all throughout the day and run long into the night, so every attendee should pick up a program. Treat the program like your tour guide for the length of your visit. Inside you’ll get reviews, a synopsis and location information for each show. Grab a scone and your program and hike up to Arthur’s Seat, the highest point in the city, for a panoramic city view and chart out each day. Since performances vary a great deal in length and are located all throughout the city, double check your times and locations before buying tickets.

Though the offerings of the Fringe Festival change every year, the one show that is on the top of every must-see list is the Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle, a 90-minute celebration lead by over a thousand musicians and ending with fireworks. Tickets for the event are in high demand every year, so make sure to buy those tickets in advance. When it’s over, walk to a pub and have yourself a “dram” of Scotch while trying the Haggis (a Scottish tradition of a sheep’s heart, liver and lungs mixed with spices) and tasting the tatties (potatoes). Like the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it’s a one-of-a-kind Scottish experience!

This year the festival is scheduled from August 6-30th. Follow on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date on the latest happenings of the Fringe!

US haggis fans rejoice – 21 year old ban on haggis imports lifted!

Any fans of boiled sheep heart, liver and lungs cooked with oatmeal inside an animal stomach? Well, good news for you – the twenty one year old US ban on Haggis imports has been lifted!

Back in 1989, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (better known as mad cow disease) forced authorities to ban the import of haggis. Apparently, sheep offal can be lethal when infected with BSE.

Even though haggis is not exactly the kind of dish most Scots serve for dinner once a week, it is an important part if our heritage (yes, I’m Scottish). During the annual Burns Night celebrations, Haggis is always on the table.

American butchers tried making their own haggis, but seriously, who in their right mind would eat an American copycat haggis served in a can – especially when it looks (and apparently smells) like dog food?

It will take a couple of months for the first Scottish produced haggis to make it over here, and even then, you’ll need a specialty butcher to actually get your hands on one. Feel free to let us know whether you’ll be rushing to pick one up!

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Gadling + BootsnAll – Picks of the Week (4.24.09)

Welcome to Friday and another installment of our weekly content picks from travel partners BootsnAll. We reach into our “Gadling hat” and pick out 5 of the week’s best travel stories at BootsnAll, covering topics ranging from religious monuments to food to old travel standbys like Paris. Got it? Good. Let’s see what we pulled up this week:

  • Twitter x Travel – all you Twitterers out there probably already know about Gadling’s own account on the increasingly popular microblogging service. But not everyone is a fan – travel expert Rolf Potts had his followers “tweeting” mad recently when he expressed his dislike for those that used the service the way it was used while traveling. Jessica Spiegel takes a closer look at the potential pros and cons of using Twitter on the road.
  • Hostel Hiring – ever have one of those trips where you just didn’t want to return home but ran out of money? Kathleen Schmidt suggests you consider working at a hostel as a way to earn some extra cash. The prospect of long-term sleeping arrangements in a shared dorm might be a turn-off for some (read: ME) but it’s also a great way meet new friends from all over and also save some money without going home – have a look.
  • Food Freakout – if you’ve traveled enough, you’ve probably come across a “local specialty” food somewhere that made you squirm. Lucy Corne lists out Eight Traditional Foods you are obligated to try but probably won’t be asking for seconds. You know what though? I think Haggis gets a bad rap!
  • Markets in ProvenceProvence is known as one of France’s most beautiful and picturesque regions. But it’s not just the crazy beautiful scenery that’s making visitors jump on a plane – it’s also the amazing markets, chock full of fresh baguettes and straight from the farmer produce. One of Provence’s best markets is the one featured in this article on Isle sur la Sorgue. If you go, bring me back some olives, will you?
  • Angels & Demons – next month will see the release of Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons, the movie sequel to 2006’s The Da Vinci Code. Considering both films were filmed in Rome, there’s increased interest in the locations where the films were made. Find out how to take your own self-guided Angels & Demons tour of Rome with this article from BootsnAll Italy blog “WhyGo Italy.”

And with that, we conclude another installment of the Gadling + BootsnAll Picks of the Week. Stay tuned for more great travel links next Friday.

Beef brain tacos and Haggis – eating the foods that scare you

The past week has been an interesting one for me, food-wise. Last Monday I had a chance to sample a Mexican “beef brain” taco (de cabeza) and this weekend I found myself unexpectedly eating a plate of Haggis. You know – the Scottish dish made with a stomach-churning mixture of sheep’s lungs, heart and liver mixed with spices and boiled in the casing of a sheep stomach? Yeah, that Haggis.

While I would never go so far as to describe myself as the next Andrew Zimmern or Anthony Bourdain, I have become significantly more adventurous in my eating habits in the past five years. It’s perhaps an inevitable consequence for any frequent traveler. The more time you spend abroad, the easier it becomes to adjust to the rhythm of life and customs of places unlike your home. But even for many self-proclaimed “adventurous” travelers like myself, certain foods are the equivalent of a culinary no-fly zone. Phrases like “It’s unsafe” or “I might gag if I eat that” are often provided as rationalizations.

While I can empathize with these excuses, I think all of us (barring dietary restrictions) should try every food at least once. A lot of what we fear about certain foods is mental – a perception we’ve gained from anecdotes and popular culture that’s often not grounded in reality. More often than not you’ll find yourself enjoying the supposedly forbidden food, wondering what had you all worked up in the first place. And if you don’t like it? So what…the worst that happens is you spit it out and have a fun story to tell your friends.

Take Haggis – a food that has become the punchline to a bad joke. When I tried it recently, I found the taste and texture to be fantastic. It was like eating a spicy version of ground beef – I had myself wondering what all the fuss was about. And those beef brain tacos? I wasn’t a big fan – the meat was relatively tasteless and I found them to be too chewy. But you know what? I’m happy I tried both of them. Even if I don’t plan to snack on Haggis and beef brains every day, I’ve gained a newfound appreciation of each of these unique cultures – and that to me makes it worthwhile.