New Thing #34 – Visit the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Whilst completing last weekend’s epic drive from Land’s End to John O’Groats, I took the opportunity to complete an extra New Thing en route. Technically I suppose it took place during the week of New Thing #33, but then who’s taking notes. The point is, if I was going to drive 2000 miles up and down this blasted island, I was going to get some mileage out of it. That’s right, I made a driving pun.
The Edinburgh “Fringe” Festival is the largest arts festival in the world. It takes place every year for three weeks in August and features an eclectic array of comedy, dance, theatre and music. It’s a massive, massive event – the Guardian reckons there were 40,254 performances of 2,453 shows at 259 venues, involving more than 21,000 performers this year. It is one of those events you always hear about but never really think about going to unless you live abroad or you’re a student with nothing else to do. So when the opportunity cropped up to drop in during our trip, I was deeply excited.
I’ll say here and now: I did not perform comedy at the Fringe Festival. Despite the repeated suggestions to do throughout the year, and the very convincing case put forward by Mrs NT (who I suspect just wanted to see me humiliate myself), I have no desire to ever get up on stage and perform a comedy routine. I love comedy and wish to continue enjoying it as an audience member without having to experience the sheer terror of dieing on stage. So if you were hoping for an amusing story about a failed comedic career, you’d be better off reading Alex Zane’s wikipedia page. (Mind you, with gags like that perhaps I should have given it a shot).
We arrived in Edinburgh around 9pm and immediately set out to orientate ourselves. Quickly distracted by a delicious pint and some needlessly deep-fried food, we did not get off to a great start. The problem is the festival is massive and based all over the city. Looking at the performer guide is like reading the Daily Star – it is impossible to decipher and completely nonsensical. We eventually happened upon the Pleasance Dome, one of four main areas that seemed to host a variety of gigs throughout the night. Quickly realising that pretty much everything was sold out, we managed to get hold of four press tickets for a BBC Comedy Presents revue style show for a tenner each. Steep, yes, but this is the EDINBURGH FESTIVAL MAN!
After a few more pints it was time to go in. In, we later discovered, to Edinburgh University’s student union. A student union decked out with palm trees, a domed ceiling and more bars than a real ale festival. It made Exeter University’s union look like some two-bit West Country chain pub. The show itself was great fun and we enjoyed five acts including the aforementioned Alex Zane (so bad he made me want to have a cry), Frisky & Mannish (a musical duo who made fun of pop music. Very good), James Kirk (young ginger chap who won the up and coming award this year. Also very good) and Asher Treveleaven (outstanding).
Feeling suitably smug, we decided to have a nightcap at one of the many bars that had sprung up in the City Centre. Much like Glastonbury or one of the bigger music festivals, during the Fringe a series of areas are constructed containing bars, food outlets and music. All free, one can wander around between them all enjoying the array of fried foods and warm beers. After wandering around the festival a bit and soaking up the brilliant atmosphere, we settled in the huge Uderbelly area which you’ll see from the photo (not mine, incidently) was buzzing.
One thing I will say about Scottish people is I think they get a bad rap. Everyone we met was friendly, welcoming and happy. True, most of them were either high, drunk or a mixture of both but even in their inebriated states, they exuded warmth and a certain strain of charm. We didn’t always understand what they were saying, mind, but the bits we did manage to piece together indicated that these 3 weeks of the year are a highlight for the locals. Apart from the incessant flyering obviously – it is nigh on impossible to walk 10 yards without some spotty student thrusting another wad of leaflets in your hand.
As all the bars remained open until 5am, we stayed up late, talking with locals, drinking whiskys and generally soaking up the festival atmosphere. We knew it was time to go home when we spotted (disgraced TV host) John Leslie pestering a young woman and Janine from Eastenders trying to catch people’s attention. Yes, that was the sum total of our seleb spots.
The Edinburgh Fringe was an amazing experience and well worth its own New Thing. I’ll be back next year to enjoy more. But I’m not doing stand-up. Ever.
