Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Every year I manage to attend about two proper, theatrical, loud, colourful live shows. This is a pretty dismal tally for someone who lives/has lived in some, quite frankly, banging cities with a lot going on in the realms of music, art and theatre.

I love being an audience member sitting amongst other mesmerised, hysterical or downright mystified people who are experiencing a live performance first hand in which anything could happen.

So why do I not go more often? I think it’s because I quite often do not have my finger to the arty pulse or my ear attuned to the theatrical whisperings on the live show grapevine but living in Edinburgh during August it is impossible to avoid the absorbent, collective creative energy of the Fringe Festival.

I have laughed until I cried during Phil Kay’s hysterically funny set at The Hive, I have cried until it was embarrassing over the beautifully portrayed This Land: The Story of Woodie Guthrie at the Zoo Southside, I experienced the magical childhood sensation of suspended disbelief during The Curious Scrapbook of Josephine Bean at the Traverse Theatre and was transported back to my university days as I sat taking notes at the Book Festival whilst listening to Kathleen Jamie.

The Foodies Festival was a highlight as we managed to get half price tickets which allowed us into the large arena in Inverleith Park over the whole weekend.

We ate jerk chicken, churros and traditional smokies and watched Steven K. Amos and Tim Vine pretend to create culinary masterpieces whilst cracking jokes and making even the most resolutely stoic old boys burst out laughing.

I have seen at least ten shows in the last eleven days which blows my quota for the year out of the water! It has been a totally mad whirlwind of adventures (especially because we always seem to be rushing to get to shows on foot and on time which just adds to the sense of craziness).

Now that I am also helping out with a friend’s production at Summerhall I feel ever more in the eye of the storm. [The Guild of Cheesemakers is, on the surface, a formal cheese and wine tasting but soon it becomes much more than that as the audience must help to make one of life’s biggest decisions].

Long-held dreams of sitting around in actors’ digs in the wee hours talking about cheese and art are coming true and, with more book festival tickets booked and friends to come for visits, the next ten days are set to be as good as the first (just need to keep an eye on the bank balance now!)