The Edinburgh Festival & Fringe Festival

Come August, Edinburgh is all change. The population doubles, the atmosphere becomes almost continental, and the grey stone façades burst into colour. It's the largest arts celebration in the world, drawing performers from Uppsala to Uluru and all points in between. However, the Edinburgh Festivals actually start in April with International Science Festival and conclude in December with Hogmany. For more information on all the festivals feeatured here see www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk.

Unique is an over-used word, but it absolutely applies here. Taking in everything from high-budget opera to low-concept DJ nights, literary discussions in the New Town to tightrope walkers on the Royal Mile, August in Edinburgh is like no place else on earth.

The array of performers is extraordinary; truly, all human life is here. Legions of internationally renowned writers, artists and performers descend on the city. Famous cinematic faces arrive to revive their careers or pay homage to the movies that made them, and the usually busy London comedy circuit virtually closes for a month. But Edinburgh also fills with rank amateurs on a wing and a prayer, making one last tilt at fame and fortune before the money runs out. You may have to stand in line for three hours to get into the latest hot-ticket show, or you may be the only person in the audience. You might be moved to tears by dramatic theatre and sent into paroxysms of laughter by a stand-up comic. Or, of course, vice versa. Whatever you see, though, you're unlikely to forget the experience.

The Festivals

Edinburgh International Science Festival

Where: various venues
When: Apr 3-17
Tel & website: 558 7776/www.sciencefestival.co.uk
This hugely enjoyably festival gives an accessible slant on scientific subjects without dumbing down. The UK's largest science festival, it stages around 200 events, from free talks to hands-on workshops.

Imaginate Festival

Where: various venues, check website for details
When: May 10-16
Website: www.imaginate.org.uk
Theatre for young people and children.

Edinburgh International Film Festival

Where: various cinemas & theatres
When: June 16-27
Tel & website: information 229 2550/administration 228 4051/box office 623 8030/www.edfilmfest.org.uk
The Edinburgh International Film Festival has become an important date in the industry calendar, but there are also plenty of tickets available to the cinema-going public, who get to see the future hits of intelligent cinema long before their UK release dates.

The festival is sometimes referred to as a 'hoover festival', picking up the best movies from the international festivals over the preceding 12 months and giving them UK premières. A strong hand guides the selections: the organisers choose a Directors' Showcase each year, and the Rosebud section for first-and second-time directors has assumed great importance since it was introduced in 1995.

It also shows shorts, animated flicks and factual programming, retrospectives and revivals. Alongside the screenings are a range of talks and discussions featuring cast, crew and critics.

Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

Where: various venues
When: July 31-Aug 9
Tel & website: information 467 5200/box office 473 2000/www.edinburghjazzfestival.co.uk
The Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival can get a little lost in all the crazy goings-on, perhaps partly because it begins a week before the Fringe. However, while its programme is chiefly populated by local musicians, it does draw the occasional big name: Dionne Warwick, Wynton Marsalis and Jools Holland have all performed here. More or less every strand of jazz is covered at the event, with concerts staged throughout the day and night.

Edinburgh Art Festival

Where: various museums & galleries
When: Aug 5-Sept 5
Website: www.edinburghartfestival.org
A low-key festival spread across 30 galleries.

Edinburgh International Festival

Where: various venues
When: Aug 14-Sept 6
Tel & website: administration 473 2099/box office 473 2000/www.eif.co.uk
The Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) began in 1947 with the express aim of providing war-torn Europe with a focus for the very best in new drama, music and the visual arts. To say that they achieved their ambitions is akin to suggesting that the Scottish weather can be a little changeable. Over the last 60 years the EIF – and its various offshoots and specialist competitors – has come to define the city in the eyes of many travellers.

The traditional primacy of the EIF has meant that August's events are often simply referred to as 'the festival', but it's important to recognise that there are a huge bundle of administratively separate jamborees taking place at the same time.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Where: various venues
When: Aug 7-31
Tel & website: information 226 0026/box office 226 0000/www.edfringe.com
The Fringe broke away from the Edinburgh International Festival in 1947, and these days the anarchic, chaotic event dwarfs its grander rival: around 2,000 shows were staged each year.

It differs from all Edinburgh's other festivals, and virtually all cultural festivals in Europe, in that there is absolutely no quality control. Anyone can put on a show, provided they can hire a venue, find accommodation and live on fresh air and dreams for a month or so. Acts have to pay £300-odd to the Festival Fringe Society in order to guarantee a listing in the Fringe Programme, a sprawling 250-page brochure that emerges each June.

The Fringe attracts a bewildering, heady array of aspiring young talent, consummate crowd-pleasers, once-in-a-lifetime amateurs and old pros looking for a career boost. But don't be fooled by the sheen of amateurism: the Fringe is now a well-oiled machine. Comedy and theatre are the mainstays, but dance, music, and, to a lesser degree, visual art all feature in the programme. Venues vary wildly, from the holy triumvirate of the Pleasance, the Gilded Balloon and the Assembly Rooms to a double-decker bus, a mock World War II bunker and a knitwear shop. The only rule is that there are no rules.

Edinburgh Military Tattoo

Where: Castle Esplanade, Old Town
When: Aug 7-29
Tel & website: 0870 755 5118/www.edintattoo.co.uk
The Edinburgh Military Tattoo is a soldiers' parade of music, dance and athleticism. It's grown into the single most popular event in the city each August, selling over 200,000 tickets each year, and inspiring what many believe are the world's longest queues. The Tattoo is currently held on the Castle Esplanade, but there are plans to move it to a new, purpose-built arena in Princes Street Gardens on the site of the dilapidated Ross Bandstand.

Edinburgh International Book Festival

Where: Charlotte Square Gardens, New Town
When: Aug 15-31
Tel & website: information 228 5444/box office 0845 373 5888/www.edbookfest.co.uk
The Edinburgh International Book Festival is the largest event of its type in the world. Pitching its well-appointed marquees in the gardens of Robert Adam-designed Charlotte Square, the Book Festival is a cultured haven that carefully sets itself apart from the chaotic festival throngs in the Old Town. Compared with its competitors, the event moves at an almost genteel pace, fuelled not by deep-fried pizza and Tennent's Extra but by dry white and canapés.

The Book Festival's programme comprises a range of talks, readings and discussions, grouped into broad themes that change each year. The festival's organisers appear keen to encourage participation: debates are an increasingly prominent part of the programme, as are events for children, who can romp safely in the enclosed gardens. Aspiring writers are encouraged to join one of several writers' workshops, and to visit the writers' retreat hidden among the trees.

Most authors make only a single appearance at the event, but the truly stellar – or the truly tenacious – may show up several times during the two-week programme. Big names in recent years have included Ian Rankin, Zadie Smith, Richard Dawkins, Harold Pinter, Seamus Heaney and Doris Lessing. The event has become more and more politically-minded in recent years. Alongside the expected slew of novelists, poets and critics, Rageh Omaar, Tony Benn and Gordon Brown have all appeared, lending the event a cutting edge.

Edinburgh Mela

Where: Pilrig Park, Leith
When: 2 days, early Sept
Tel & website: 339 3583/www.edinburgh-mela.co.uk
Aimed at locals, the Edinburgh Mela is a two-day outdoor event that celebrates Asian culture in the city with performances, food stalls, children's activities and a bazaar.

Scottish International Storytelling Festival

Where: Scottish Storytelling Centre
When: Oct 23-Nov 9
Website: www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk

Edinburgh's Hogmanay

Where: throughout the city
When: 29 Dec-1 Jan
Website: www.edinburghshogmanay.org
Scotland is the home of Hogmanay, and Edinburgh is the best place to celebrate it. Tradition demands that on New Year's Eve, the people of Scotland take to the streets, kiss everyone in sight as the bells ring out midnight, and afterwards go 'first footing' with a lump of coal, a bun and a bottle of spirits.

Edinburgh's official Hogmanay celebration is now a four-day extravaganza, featuring a torchlight procession, bands and singers in Princes Street Gardens, street performers, marching bands, fireworks, and even a mini-triathlon on New Year's Day for those with the hardiest of constitutions. However, the street party on the evening of 31 December is the highlight: a vast whirl of activity, it sees the city centre cordoned off for safety reasons, and the police place strict limits on numbers. It's a truly massive event, and brings thousands of visitors (and many more thousands of pounds) into the city each year.

Passes usually go on sale in October, when most of the event details are finalised, they are available from the Hub and online for £2.50 per person. Those buying tickets for one of the major concerts are also eligible. But don't worry if you can't get hold of one: there's plenty of fun to be had on the streets outside the cordon, and you can see the extravagant and beautiful Seven Hills fireworks display from vantage points such as the Meadows, North Bridge and, for the intrepid, Salisbury Crags.

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Festival 2009: Blog

Read our Edinburgh Festival 2009 blog to get news and reviews about all the best happenings at this year's festival.

Edinburgh Festival 2009 blog

Planning a visit

With so much to see in such a short space of time, planning your August itinerary can be a daunting prospect. The chaotic, spontaneous vibe is all part of the experience, but a little forward planning is crucial if you're to get the best out of it.

First and foremost: try and approach the festivals with some measure of organisation. Military precision isn't essential, but it certainly helps: unless you're in an improv troupe, it's best not to turn up and make it up as you go along. Have a look at the programme(s) before you arrive in Edinburgh, and keep your ear to the ground. By all means rock up ticketless and let nature take its inexorable course, but don't come crying to us when the only show you can get into is the Aberystwyth Amateur Dramatics Society's production of Carousel. In Welsh.

In addition to its printed programme, each festival has its own website at which you can find out what's on and book tickets for future events. Perhaps the most useful online resource, though, is www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk, which contains a searchable database listing what's on across all the major festivals. The catch-all set-up makes it that much easier to plan your schedule.

Media & reviews

So, how do you go about sorting the diamonds from the rough? Well, this is the one time of the year when press coverage really counts. Ignore the publicity stunts and read the reviews instead. Although cost-cutting in recent years has lowered the quality of its reviews, the daily festivals supplement published by the Scotsman newspaper (www.scotsman.com) is well worth a look. Arguably the most reliable reviews are found in the Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk); the Edinburgh Evening News (http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com) and the Herald (www.theherald.co.uk) also offer daily criticism of what's on. The Scotsman and the Herald award, respectively, Fringe Firsts and Angel Awards to new plays, comedies, concerts and films that have particularly impressed their critics; tickets for these immediately start selling like the proverbial hot cakes. And then there's The List (www.list.co.uk), which offers extensive coverage of the festivals; usually published fortnightly, it comes out every Thursday during August.

Several free festival newspapers, usually staffed by young writers and aspirant culture vultures, litter bars and cafés during August. Containing news, reviews, interviews, features, listings and scurrilous gossip, they make up in enthusiasm what they lack in professionalism. Three Weeks (http://threeweeks.co.uk) is the longest established of this breed; the Skinny (www.theskinny.co.uk) is also worth a peek.

And then, of course, there's good old-fashioned word of mouth, which can be more reliable than the combined mental resources of the media corps. Don't be shy: pitch in and ask those folks sitting a few seats away if they've seen anything good or – just as crucially – if they've spent good money on any absolute stinkers.

Accommodation

Perhaps your greatest difficulty when planning a visit to Edinburgh in August, and almost certainly your greatest expense, will be your accommodation. Prices for virtually all kinds of lodgings soar during the summer, and get booked up months in advance. In addition to the various types of accommodation detailed in our Hotels section, a number of flats, apartments and houses come on to the market in August for short-term lets, their owners having escaped the madness of the festivals and gone on a holiday of their own. The Fringe website (www.edfringe.com) has a message board on which offers of accommodation are posted.

Agencies that provide accommodation particularly during the Festival include: Edinburgh Holiday Flats (www.edinburghholidayflats.com); Festival Beds (225 1101/www.festivalbeds.co.uk); Festival Flats 3 Linkylea Cottages, Gifford, East Lothian, EH41 4PE (01620 810620/www.festivalflats.net).

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Booking tickets

The easiest way to book tickets before arriving in Edinburgh is by going online. All the major festivals now take internet bookings; in most cases, you can choose either to have your tickets sent to you or collect them from the relevant festival's box office when you arrive. Once you're in town, you're best off booking either by phone or at one of the walk-up box offices: the Fringe has an office on the High Street, and tickets for the Edinburgh International Festival, the Festival of Politics and the Jazz & Blues Festival are all available from the Hub.

If you're planning to jump between festivals, as most visitors do, some advance booking will definitely be necessary. Many events staged as part of the Book Festival, Film Festival and Edinburgh International Festival are one-offs, and those featuring big names do tend to sell out ahead of time. Many comedy and theatre shows on the Fringe run for far longer, in some cases nightly over a three-week period, which means you may have less trouble picking up tickets when you arrive. Others, though, run for only limited periods (in some cases, only a single night); often you'd do well to book ahead.

Those heading north purely to take in the Fringe may want to consider heading up there early. On the first weekend, punters can buy two tickets for the price of one for most shows, a godsend for the financially stretched. The caveat, of course, is that some of the shows aren't yet running on all cylinders: many are essentially at 'preview' stage and are more than a little ragged around the edges. Alternatively, head for the Fringe's new innovation: the Half Price Hut, on the corner of Waverley Bridge and Princes Street. Open 11am to 9pm daily throughout the Fringe, the hut offers 50 per cent discounts on tickets to many of that day's shows. And it's also worth hanging around the main comedy and theatre venues in the early evening to catch excited promoters handing out free tickets for shows that are selling poorly in an attempt to conjure up an audience.

Our listings

While every effort and care has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this guide, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors it may contain. Before you go out of your way, we strongly advise you to phone ahead and check the particulars.

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