Special Features - Edinburgh International Festival

Edinburgh International Festival
(01/08/07)

This August Scotland's capital hosts the biggest arts festival in the world.

Street theatre at the Edinburgh Festival.

Shows this year

With hundreds of events taking place we've whittled down a few key things to see:

Tony! The Blair musical – see Blair, Alastair Campbell, Bush and Brown singing in harmony together.

Edinburgh military Tattoo – with its thousand strong cast, the spectacle of massed pipes, drums and marching bands is always the biggest show in town.

Margaret Atwood – The Booker Prize winning author will be turning up in person to discuss her life and books as part of the Book Festival.

Fireworks concert – The finale of the festival, the dramatic fireworks above Edinburgh Castle are accompanied by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Alan Bennett - The observational comedian will be amusing audiences with scenarios such as the Queen following her corgies into a mobile library.

Even if you don't manage to get tickets to any of the events – just wondering around Edinburgh during the festival can be a fantastic experience watching all the street theatre and rubbing shoulders with celebrities in the massive beer gardens that are created specially for the Festival.

60 years of performances

The Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) began 60 years ago in 1947, with the aim of providing 'a platform for the flowering of the human spirit' in the post war gloom. Right from the start it inspired people to put on shows of their own outside the official Festival, and soon these grew into the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Since then half a dozen or so more festivals have grown up around it in August and early September, and collectively these are often known as 'the Edinburgh Festival'.

The EIF and the Fringe remain independent bodies, and organise separate programs each year. Over the period since 1947, several other festivals have also been established in Edinburgh including the increasingly popular Edinburgh Book Festival.

Festival is big business

The Festival is big business, last year it sold 1.5 million tickets – the fourth consecutive year that it has sailed past the million-ticket barrier.

The Fringe 2006 featured 28,014 performances of 1,867 shows in 261 venues – a massive feat of organisation.

Comedians, actors and musicians from all over the world travel to Edinburgh to be discovered or simply to get back to their roots.

Getting tickets

Even if you don't manage to get tickets to any of the events, just wandering around Edinburgh during the festival can be a fantastic experience, watching all the street theatre and rubbing shoulders with celebrities in the massive beer gardens that are created specially for the Festival.

If you want to experience a show for yourself, you can find ticket information on the official EIF and Edinburgh Festival Fringe websites.

Related links

Visit Scotland