While the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is famed for late-night boozing, interesting conceptual club nights and lairy standups, the truth of the matter is that it’s such a vast event that it offers all things to all people: including families!
There’s a dedicated family section in the Fringe brochure, and the mornings at the festival in particular are bustling with shows specifically aimed at children, from theatre to stand-up. Whether you’re a local looking for summer holiday activities, a visitor with kids, or you just really dig bubble-based shows, there’s something for everyone here.
Here’s our top picks.
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What is it? Acclaimed leftfield Kiwi clown Trygve Wakenshaw returned to the Fringe in triumph last year after a seven year hiatus and he must have got a taste for it because he’s back with three this year – a reprise of 2017’s Different Party, a new one called Hot Chips, and Monsterrrr!, another newie aimed at youngsters. In it he plays a horrible, ugly and yet somewhat pitiable monster – dare his young audience (aged five plus) befriend it?
Where is it? Assembly George Square.
What is it? There’s more to Edinburgh Fringe kids shows than bubble performers and bad science. Not a lot more, perhaps, but this show from Irish company Branar is certainly something a little different, being a kids’ adaptation of James Joyce’s famously impenetrable Ulysses. Presumably not that much is used for what is, after all, a 45-minute show. But the endeavour sounds admirably quixotic and the staging – based around intricate paper models and an original score – sounds compelling. Not one for the tots – the age advice is eight plus.
Where is it? Pleasance Courtyard.
What is it? We tend to think of New Yorkers as pathologically grouchy souls. But primary schooler-orientated NYC wizard Mario the Maker Magician is defined by his infectious elan. Whether he’s goofing around with the petty logic of a seven-year old or accessibly expounding on his love for Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, it’s the giddy atmosphere that the Sesame Street and David Blaine-endorsed Mario fosters in his show that makes it work as much as the actual magic.
Where is it? Underbelly, George Square.
What is it? Louis Pearl’s bubblicious show is an Edinburgh mainstay that sells out every year for a reason. That reason being: he does cool stuff with bubbles! Big bubbles, little bubbles, artistic bubbles, bubbles demonstrating science, dumb bubbles, clever bubble – aaaaaaall the bubbles. It’s never the only bubble-based Edinburgh Fringe kids’ show but it’s definitely ‘the big one’.
Where is it? Underbelly, Bristo Square.
What is it? Stand-ups doing Fringe shows for kids have a variable provenance, but Olaf Falafel is an old hand at this and an annual fixture at the festival. The show offers an hour of ‘really stupid kids’ comedy plus maybe some drawing’ from stand-up, children’s author and former winner of Joke of the Fringe Falafel. Aimed at kids aged five plus, tickets are on sale on a pay-what-you-can basis. There is talk of a pogo stick being deployed.
Where is it? Laughing Horse @ The Counting House.
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