Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Despite being from Scotland I've never found my way to the Edinburgh Fringe before, although it's been on my to-do list for so long. This year I finally made the time to go through to Edinburgh for the day to experience it for myself.
Firstly, Edinburgh is busy at the best of times, but during the Fringe it's absolutely mobbed. I'm not a huge fan of crowds, but the atmosphere during the Fringe makes it so much easier to deal with. Everything seems so relaxed and upbeat that it was hard to get stressed about the amount of flyers being handed to me every minute (especially when it's coming from a guy dressed up like cupid). There were also stalls everywhere selling fantastic quirky bits and bobs. I managed to pick up some incredible Scottish artwork by Forrest Folk.
If you don't have the cash to spend going to show after show, you don't need to. We stumbled on so many amazing free performances on the Royal Mile that we could have spent the whole day just wandering around and soaking it all in. There were tons of free comedy shows for those into stand up, and some incredible buskers performing on the street. If I'm totally honest I can't believe some of the singers didn't have record contracts already! A particular favourite of mine were The Little Things, a ukulele duo from New Orleans who I caught completely by accident at one of the Virgin Money Street Events (thanks Richard Branson!) When you come across two people playing ukuleles and slaying a bit of Britney you stop and enjoy it. Check them out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/katyandshanece/
Of course if a show is what you're after there's absolutely hundreds of amazing ones every day spread all over the city. We went to Edinburgh with no plan. Mistake. We were totally overwhelmed by the amount of choice, and ended up choosing something completely at random. Luckily for us, we ended up at the funniest and possibly weirdest show we could have. Swansong, a Dugout Theatre performance was completely bizarre, and I don't think I've laughed so much in ages. The story of four unlikely survivors of an apoplectic flood who are floating on an unending sea in a swan pedalo. Sounds random, no? It was, but in the best way possible. With some hilarious a cappella singing and the combination of four entirely different characters stuck on a pedalo with no way of escaping each other, it was by far the quickest hour I've ever spent at the theatre.
After all the fun and excitement of the day, the only thing left to do was relax and enjoy some more free music at St Andrew Square Garden in the Edinburgh Gin Garden. Safe to say I'll be back at the Fringe next year with a plan and a bunch of tickets!
