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

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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!

Aisle theater seats may cost more money

Taking a cue from airlines like Northwest and US Airways that charge more for certain aisle and exit seats to increase revenue, some performing arts theaters are doing the same. According to this AP article, some theaters have found patrons willing to cough up as much as an extra $25 to sit in an aisle seat.

Although I can see that the extra cash comes in handy for the theatrical companies who are finding ways to make ends meet, there’s a certain aspect of this practice that I find annoying. When you buy theater tickets you already pay according to where you would like to sit–orchestra seats as opposed to the balcony, for example. And just because you’ve paid for an orchestra seat, doesn’t mean your seat is all that great.

Sometimes you could have seen better in the balcony depending on who is sitting in front of you. If there is a tall person with big hair, for example–or a person who can’t quite decide which way to lean, there you are struggling to see the stage. All that money you paid for a “good” ticket may not seem worth it by the middle of Act II.

If the theater is really looking to make money and to make seating more fair why not charge tall people more? Also, consider this. If there is a heavier person sitting in the middle because he or she can’t afford the $25 for an aisle seat, what does that do to the comfort of the other theater-goers around him or her?

Charging more for seats that are already a hefty price for most people seems elitist to me and not particularly fair. It seems like instead of drawing people to the theater, it’s one more way to detract some people from coming, i.e., older people with arthritis, people who have mobility problems, heavy people and people with long legs.

Although, on the other hand, if there are aisle seats that are available for people who actually need them because of size or some other physical condition, that seems fair. I would hate to think that some people are kept away from the theater because a physical issue that makes them and everyone else too uncomfortable unless they are able to pay extra to alleviate the problem.


Think that’s weird? Then check out these weird hotels and learn what “weird” really is!