90-598: The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe , the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival ) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featured more than 51,446 scheduled performances of 3,746 different shows across 262 venues from 60 different countries. Of those shows, the largest section
180-497: A 700-seat marquee auditorium, which hosted, among other things, opera, even though the organisers had been told it was no such place for the artform. The venue also took over the nearby Heriot-Watt Students' Association and the Little Lyceum. In total, it hosted 38 companies. The next year it became a "tented village", with several smaller tents. Malcolm Hardee made his debut here as part of The Greatest Show On Legs . In 1982
270-415: A centre of world resort for lovers of music, drama, opera, ballet and the graphic arts. Certain preconditions were obviously required of such a centre. It should be a town of reasonable size, capable of absorbing and entertaining anything between 50,000 and 150,000 visitors over a period of three weeks to a month. It should, like Salzburg, have considerable scenic and picturesque appeal and it should be set in
360-545: A comedy venue in the former J. & R. Allan's department store on Cowgate . A 3am late licence made it a home for late-night socialising for comedians, and the raucous late-night show Late 'n' Live was started there. In 1988, the Society moved from 170 High Street to expanded headquarters at 158–166 High Street on the Royal Mile , with an extension leading back towards the former Wireworks Building. The basement became
450-562: A country likely to be attractive to tourists and foreign visitors. It should have sufficient number of theatres, concert halls and open spaces for the adequate staging of a programme of an ambitious and varied character. Above all it should be a city likely to embrace the opportunity and willing to make the festival a major preoccupation not only in the City Chambers but in the heart and home of every citizen, however modest. Greatly daring but not without confidence I recommended Edinburgh as
540-715: A distinctly national drama, often employing Scots dialogue. His A Trump for Jericho , a comedy set in the New Town of Edinburgh at the time of the Disruption in 1843 was first performed by the Scottish National Players in 1947. He also wrote plays for the Glasgow Citizens and Dundee Repertory Theatre . In 1948, working with Tyrone Guthrie , he staged a revival of Scotland's first Scottish play, David Lyndsay's Ane Pleasant Satyre of
630-562: A feeling that "smaller venues may lose out, but this case may be overstated... The episode of the super-venues, the Assembly Rooms in particular, has some way to go yet". Student shows continued to thrive with the National Student Theatre Company, National Youth Music Theatre, Cambridge Mummers, Oxford Theatre Group and Bradford University producing well-received new work. Among professional companies,
720-466: A lack of venues, but just as that limit seemed to be being reached, groups began to find more efficient ways of sharing spaces. Venues could be fully utilised from 10am to 2am, with up to seven different groups throughout the day. The sharing led to the rise of bigger, more centralised venues. Rents increased too, with a venue like Heriot-Watt Students' Union doubling their rent in three years. In 1986, promoter Karen Koren established The Gilded Balloon as
810-475: A part-time basis, but it became clear after a few weeks that the role would have to be permanent. Milligan was responsible for a number of innovations which remain in place today, such as the numbering system for venues and the Fringe map in the brochure, and he was also credited with establishing the co-operative spirit of the Fringe. He left in 1976. Between 1976 and 1981, under the direction of Alistair Moffat ,
900-439: A return to pre-pandemic levels, with 3,334 shows. Fifty were livestreamed, by NextUp Comedy , for the first time ever since the founding of The Fringe, in an effort to stay true to The Fringe Society's 2022 vision of equality and inclusiveness. The 2025 festival is scheduled from August 1 to 25. The Fringe started life when eight theatre companies turned up uninvited to the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival in 1947. With
990-590: A review of Everyman in 1947, when a critic remarked it was a shame the show was so far out "on the fringe of the Festival". In 1950, it was still being referred to in similar terms, with a small 'f': On the fringe of the official Festival there are many praiseworthy "extras," including presentations by the Scottish Community Drama Association and Edinburgh University Dramatic Society – Dundee Courier , 24 August 1950 Since it
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#17327650874501080-466: A series of other important British companies such as the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre , The English Stage Company , Royal Shakespeare Company , Traverse Theatre , Prospect Theatre Company , and the National Theatre of Great Britain . One of the festival's first dramatic success came in 1948 when an adaptation of Sir David Lyndsay 's The Thrie Estaites was performed to great acclaim for
1170-416: A vast free showcase of events held on The Meadows – was cancelled when a sponsor could not be secured. The "Big Four" venues - Assembly , Gilded Balloon , The Pleasance and Underbelly - also decided to market themselves as Edinburgh Comedy Festival , which drew criticism from some quarters. After an interim period, during which Tim Hawkins, formerly general manager of Brighton Komedia took charge,
1260-745: A year, in August, and board members serve a term of four years. The Board appoints the Fringe Society's Chief Executive (formerly known as the Fringe Administrator or Director). The Chief Executive operates under the chair. Phoebe Waller-Bridge , whose show Fleabag was performed at the Fringe in 2013 before it was adapted for television, was named the first-ever President of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society in 2021. The planned 2020 Fringe Festival
1350-569: Is a collection of festivals with more than 2,500 performances and events every day in Edinburgh in August, which is said to be many times larger than any similar conglomeration of arts and media festivals anywhere in the world. Robert Kemp (playwright) Robert Kemp (1908–1967) was a Scottish playwright. Along with Tom Fleming and Lennox Milne, he was a founder of the Edinburgh Gateway Company (1953 - 1965). He
1440-472: Is at the Fringe Shop on the Royal Mile , and in August they also manage Fringe Central, a separate collection of spaces dedicated to providing support for Fringe participants during their time at the festival. The Fringe board of directors is drawn from members of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, many of whom are Fringe participants themselves – performers or venue operators. Elections are held once
1530-608: Is the largest section, making up over one-third of the programme, and the one that in modern times has the highest public profile, due in part to the Edinburgh Comedy Awards . The Festival is supported by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society , which publishes the programme, sells tickets to all events from a central physical box office and website, and offers year-round advice and support to performers. The Society's permanent location
1620-684: The Actors Touring Company , it had operated in the south side of the city in 1980 and 1981, but in 1982 expanded into a piece of empty ground popularly known as "The Hole in The Ground" near the Usher Hall. This was once the site of a church building ( Poole 's Synod Hall), which was converted to a cinema, and where the Saltire complex was subsequently built in the early 1990s. The new Traverse Theatre opened here in 1993. It had
1710-612: The Almeida Theatre , ATC, Cheek By Jowl , Cherub, Cliff Hanger, Entertainment Machine, Hull Truck , Kick Theatre, Lumiere and Son, Medieval Players and Trickster were regulars. In 1983, the Fringe joined with the International Festival, Edinburgh Tattoo and the Film Festival to promote Edinburgh as 'The Festival City' for the first time. Moffatt believed the growth of the Fringe would stop due to
1800-669: The Assembly Theatre in the empty Georgian building Assembly Rooms on George Street (formerly the EIF Festival Club), the investment in staging, lighting and sound meant that the original amateur or student theatricals were left behind. In the same year, the YMCA in South St Andrew Street, which had been an important venue since the early days, closed. However, the subsequent rise in prominence of
1890-592: The British Council in Scotland, Sidney Newman, Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh University , and a group of civic leaders from the City of Edinburgh, in particular Sir John Falconer . Bing had looked at several English cities before shifting his focus to Scotland and settling on Edinburgh, a city he had visited and admired in 1939. In particular, Edinburgh's castle reminded him of Salzburg where he had been
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#17327650874501980-538: The Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe during August. It set a standard to which other companies on the Fringe aspired. The Traverse is occasionally referred to as "The Fringe venue that got away", reflecting its current status as a permanent and integral part of the Edinburgh arts scene. The Pleasance , a venue since the first year of the Fringe, was also important in setting the artistic tone. Christopher Richardson, founder of
2070-471: The English Opera Group . Major artists came to Edinburgh during the first thirty years, such as the conductors Claudio Abbado , Daniel Barenboim , Thomas Beecham , Fritz Busch , Christoph von Dohnányi , Ferenc Fricsay , Alexander Gibson , Carlo Maria Giulini , Vittorio Gui , Rafael Kubelik , Georg Solti , Alberto Erede , János Ferencsik , John Pritchard , and Carlos Kleiber , and
2160-752: The Le Comédie Française , Düsseldorf Theatre Company , The Stratford Ontario Festival Company , Abbey Theatre Dublin , Theatre on the Balustrade, Prague , La Mama Company, New York and the Noh and Bunraku companies from Japan. Noted directors in the early years included E. Martin Browne , Peter Ustinov , Gustav Gründgens , Tyrone Guthrie and Michael Benthall , while in the 1960s and 1970s Frank Dunlop , Richard Eyre , Toby Robertson , Luca Ronconi , and Andrei Serban brought productions to
2250-576: The Olympics and the World Cup in terms of global ticketed events. It is an open-access (or " unjuried ") performing arts festival, meaning that there is no selection committee, and anyone may participate, with any type of performance. The official Fringe Programme categorises shows into sections for theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre , circus , cabaret , children's shows, musicals , opera, music, spoken word , exhibitions, and events. Comedy
2340-474: The Pleasance Theatre Trust , became a major Fringe figure. John Cairney is credited with pioneering the one-man Fringe show with his show based on Robert Burns , There Was A Man , in 1965, although Elspeth Douglas Reid had done her One Woman Theatre as early as 1955. American Nancy Cole played Gertrude Stein in 1969 and continued to do so until 1985. Over the first two decades of
2430-590: The Royal Scottish Academy , and Canada 101 , a focus on contemporary Canadian art, all in 1968. Sixteenth century Italian drawings from British private collections (at Merchants' Hall), Contemporary Polish art , and Jack Coia gold medallist were shown in 1969. For 1970, the exhibitions were Early Celtic art and Contemporary German art from Düsseldorf . The Belgian contribution to surrealism , Sir Walter Scott Bicentenary and Contemporary Romanian art exhibitions were offered in 1971. In 1972
2520-574: The Sonja Henie — Niels Onstad Collection in Oslo in 1962. Modigliani and Soutine were shown in a double exhibition, together with Music and Dance in Indian Art, in 1963. There was an exhibition of Delacroix in 1964, Corot in 1965, and Rouault in 1966. The third decade began with Derain in 1967, followed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh , Wotruba , a Boudin to Picasso exhibition at
2610-637: The Stuttgart State Opera , Royal Opera Stockholm , Glyndebourne Opera, Covent Garden Opera , Belgrade Opera , the English Opera Group , Teatro San Carlo, Naples , Budapest Opera and Ballet , National Theatre, Prague , the Holland Festival and the Bavarian State Opera , with an average of four or five productions each year. Also from 1965, an Edinburgh Festival Opera began to offer locally created shows. During
2700-528: The 1960s and 1970s. The visual arts were not featured in the first two festivals in 1947 and 1948, but from 1949 they became an important part of the events. There were major exhibitions at the National Gallery of Scotland and Royal Scottish Academy . These included Rembrandt in 1950, Spanish Paintings ( El Greco to Goya ) in 1951, Degas in 1952, Renoir in 1953, Cézanne in 1954, Gauguin in 1955, and Braque in 1956. The second decade of
2790-634: The Assembly Rooms meant there was now a balance in the Fringe between the Old Town and the New Town, with Princes Street in the middle. Fringe Sunday started in the High Street in 1981 and moved, through pressure of popularity, to Holyrood Park in 1983. Fringe Sunday was held on the second Sunday of the Fringe when companies performed for free. Having outgrown even Holyrood Park, this showcase took place on The Meadows and continued until 2008. 1981
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2880-545: The Festival are: Other venues that have sometimes been used in the past include: About ten other festivals are held in Edinburgh at about the same time as the International Festival. Collectively, the entire group is referred to as the Edinburgh Festival or Edinburgh Festivals. Most notable is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe , which started as an offshoot of the International Festival in
2970-573: The Fringe Club (variously in the High Street from 1971 and at Teviot Row House from 1981) provided nightly showcases of Fringe fare to allow audiences to sample shows. In its earlier years the club also provided a significant space for after-hours socialising at a time when Edinburgh's strict licensing laws meant a 10pm pub closing time. For a time, the main ticket office was in the University Chaplaincy Centre, and then in
3060-422: The Fringe head's basic administrative function. A report into the failure was commissioned from accountancy firm Scott-Moncrieff. Several venues now use their own ticketing systems; this is partly due to issues of commissions and how ticket revenue is distributed, but was reinforced by this 2008 failure of the main box office. The same year, other incidents conspired to add to the negative publicity. Fringe Sunday –
3150-411: The Fringe on merit given the Society's position of neutrality. Increasing show numbers was therefore a way of attracting more attention. At this point, the Fringe operated on only two full-time members of staff. In 1977, the office moved to a converted shop and basement at 170 High Street. The International Festival, now under the direction of John Drummond, became more accommodating towards the Fringe in
3240-436: The Fringe, each performing group used its own performing space, or venue. However, by the late 1960s, the concept of sharing a venue became popular, principally as a means of cutting costs. It soon became common for halls to host up to six or seven different shows per day. The obvious next step was to partition a venue into two or more performing spaces; the majority of today's major venues fit into this category. For many years,
3330-467: The General Manager of Glyndebourne Opera Festival , the arts patron Lady Rosebery, theatre director Sir Tyrone Guthrie, and Audrey Mildmay (wife of John Christie ) during a wartime tour of a small-scale Glyndebourne production of The Beggar's Opera . Rudolf Bing conceived of the festival to heal the wounds of war through the languages of the arts. This is its principal raison d’être . It
3420-420: The International Festival programme. The YMCA became established as the first central Fringe ticket office. Not long afterwards came the first complaints that the Fringe had become too big. Director Gerard Slevin claimed in 1961 that "it would be much better if only ten halls were licensed". In the 1960s and 1970s, the Fringe began to establish its reputation for size and variety and the tension between it and
3510-622: The International Festival using the city's major venues, these companies took over smaller, alternative venues for their productions. Seven performed in Edinburgh, and one undertook a version of the medieval morality play " Everyman " in Dunfermline Abbey , about 20 miles north, across the River Forth in Fife. These groups aimed to take advantage of the large assembled theatre crowds to showcase their own alternative theatre. Although at
3600-804: The Jockey Club Cup in 1944. This sum was matched by Edinburgh Town Council and then some money in turn was matched by the Arts Council of Great Britain under the chairmanship of John Maynard Keynes. Bing also co-founded the Festival with Henry Harvey Wood, Head of the British Council in Scotland, Sidney Newman, Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh University, and a group of civic leaders from the City of Edinburgh, in particular Sir John Falconer. The first International Festival took place between 22 August and 11 September 1947, and it remained an event straddling August and September until 2015, when
3690-631: The Paperback Bookshop and Traverse Theatre, eventually led to the Edinburgh International Book Festival also staged in August. The British Army's desire to showcase itself during the festival period led to the independent staging of the first Edinburgh Military Tattoo , featuring displays of piping and dancing, in 1950. This annual event has come to be regarded as a part of the official festival, though it continues to be organised separately. The result
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3780-596: The Royal Mile Centre on the High Street. Although the Fringe was now associated with the High Street, areas like the New Town , West End and Morningside were also prominent in this period. Problems then began to arise as the Fringe became too big for students and volunteers to deal with. Eventually in 1969, the Fringe Society became a constituted body, and in 1970 it employed its first administrator, John Milligan. He started work in January 1971, originally on
3870-767: The Scottish painter Alan Davie was featured at the Royal Scottish Academy, followed in 1973 by Permanences e l'Art Francais in the same gallery, as well as Objects USA at the City of Edinburgh Art Gallery, and a Tyrone Guthrie exhibition . Many works have received their world premieres at the Edinburgh International Festival, from T. S. Eliot 's The Cocktail Party and The Confidential Clerk in 1949 and 1953, to James MacMillan 's 2018 version of Quickening and Symphony No. 5 , both in 2019. The principal venues of
3960-620: The Spanish Ballet of Pilar López , the Yugoslav Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet . Drama was an important feature of the Edinburgh International Festival from its inception, and right through the successful early years. The Old Vic Theatre Company, like Glyndebourne for opera and Sadler's Wells for ballet, gave their strong support to the festival in the beginning, and over the years they were joined by
4050-637: The Thrie Estaitis and, also in 1948, he coined the phrase “Edinburgh Festival Fringe” . His adaptation of Allan Ramsay 's The Gentle Shepherd was staged at the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland in 1949. His son, Arnold Kemp, achieved fame as a newspaper editor. Robert Kemp's plays include: This article about a dramatist or playwright is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Scottish biographical article
4140-512: The UK and world media. More debts emerged as the year went on, and an independent report criticised the Board and the current and previous Fringe Directors for a failure of management and an inability to provide the basic service. The Board eventually decided that the post of "Director" (instituted in 1992 in lieu of "Fringe Administrator") would be abolished and replaced by a Chief Executive, to reinforce
4230-407: The beginning of their careers, while the long-lived pianist Artur Rubinstein had a career that seemingly spanned both eras. Some of the most impressive performers of the early years had their careers cut short in the 1950s, notably Kathleen Ferrier , Guido Cantelli , Ginette Neveu and Dennis Brain . Edinburgh remained at the centre of the musical world during the second decade (1957–1966) of
4320-407: The centre and promised to make preliminary investigations. Wood approached Falconer, who enthusiastically welcomed the initiative on behalf of the city. As it was too late to finalise arrangements for 1946, plans were made for the following year. It was first financed by Lord Rosebery with the £10,000 winnings of his horse Ocean Swell that won the only two major horse-races run in wartime including
4410-449: The city. Well-known actors included Ralph Richardson , Alec Guinness , John Gielgud , Sybil Thorndike , Lewis Casson , Emlyn Williams , Claire Bloom , Alan Badel , Peter Finch , Richard Burton , Fay Compton , Ann Todd , Eric Porter and Edwige Feuillère in the early period, while Anna Calder-Marshall , Derek Jacobi , Felicity Kendal , Ian McKellen , John Neville , Edward Petherbridge , and Timothy West first appeared in
4500-427: The city. The internet began to have an impact in 2000 with the launch of the Fringe's official website, which sold more than half a million tickets online by 2005. The following year, a Half Price Ticket Tent, run in association with Metro newspaper, started offering special ticket prices for different shows each day. This sold 45,000 tickets in its first year. In 2008, the Fringe faced its biggest crisis so far when
4590-405: The computerised ticketing system failed. The events surrounding the failed box office software led to the resignation of Fringe Director Jon Morgan after only one full year in post. The resultant financial loss suffered by the Fringe Society was estimated at £300,000, which it was forced to meet from its reserves, although other sources report this at £900,000. These events attracted much comment from
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#17327650874504680-477: The conductors Herbert von Karajan , Rafael Kubelík , Charles Munch , Wolfgang Sawallisch , and Leonard Bernstein , the pianists Claudio Arrau , Solomon , and Rudolf Serkin , the string players Yehudi Menuhin , Pierre Fournier , Isaac Stern , and Amadeus String Quartet , and the singers Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau , Victoria de los Ángeles , Boris Christoff , Elisabeth Schwarzkopf , and Peter Pears were all present in Edinburgh concert and recital halls from
4770-630: The dates of the Edinburgh International Festival was brought forward to begin and end in August. This brought the International Festival back in sync with the Fringe which had shifted dates several years earlier. From the beginning, the festival had a broad coverage, but with an emphasis on classical music, a highlight of the first season being concerts given by the Vienna Philharmonic , reunited with their erstwhile conductor Bruno Walter , who had left Europe after Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938. Many notable musicians appeared at
4860-891: The directors Carl Ebert , Peter Ebert , Götz Friedrich , Colin Graham , Jean-Pierre Ponnelle , Günther Rennert , Giorgio Strehler , Luchino Visconti , Wieland Wagner and Franco Zeffirelli . Star singers appearing in staged operas included Victoria de los Angeles , Teresa Berganza , Maria Callas , Lisa della Casa , Ileana Cotrubaș , Sena Jurinac , Birgit Nilsson , Magda Olivero , Renata Scotto , Anja Silja , Elisabeth Söderström , Joan Sutherland , Galina Vishnevskaya , and Ljuba Welitsch , Luigi Alva , Sesto Bruscantini , Boris Christoff , Fernando Corena , Geraint Evans , Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau , Nicolai Gedda , Tito Gobbi , Alfredo Kraus , George London , Luciano Pavarotti , Peter Pears , Hermann Prey , Giuseppe Di Stefano , Wolfgang Windgassen , and Fritz Wunderlich . Ballet
4950-546: The early 1950s. The first one was the New Drama Group's After The Show , a series of sketches taking place after Donald Pleasence 's Ebb Tide , in 1952. Among the talent to appear in early Fringe revues were Ned Sherrin in 1955, and Ken Loach and Dudley Moore with the Oxford Theatre Group in 1958. Due to many reviewers only being able to attend Fringe events late night after the official festival
5040-403: The enterprise lost £28,000, and in 1983 there were further criticisms related to over-charging, over-crowding and inadequate facilities. The Circuit was not repeated, but it had demonstrated the potential for temporary venues at the Fringe, which are now a familiar sight. Even with the rise of super venues, there was still theatre done on a shoestring, but several cultural entrepreneurs had raised
5130-607: The established Edinburgh Book Festival and Fringe manager Kath Mainland was appointed in February 2009 to stabilise the situation, becoming the Fringe's first Chief Executive. Comedy finally surpassed theatre as the biggest section of the programme in 2008, with 660 comedy entries to 599. In 2009, theSpaceUK launched their multi-space complex at the Royal College of Surgeons . In 2011, a new all-year-round multi-arts festival venue, containing ten performance spaces, opened in
5220-636: The festival began with Monet in 1957, followed by two exhibitions, Masterpieces of Byzantine Art and the Moltzau Collection ( Cézanne to Picasso ) featured in 1958, Masterpieces of Czech Art in 1959, German Expressionist Painting in 1960, and an Epstein Memorial Exhibition together with a selection from the Bührle Collection ( Zürich ) in 1961. Modern Primitive Paintings from Yugoslavia and Matisse and After (from
5310-463: The festival director before the war. Harvey Wood described the meeting at which the idea was hatched: The Edinburgh International Festival of Music and Drama was first discussed over a lunch table in a restaurant in Hanover Square , London , towards the end of 1944. Rudolf Bing, convinced that musical and operatic festivals on anything like the pre-war scale were unlikely to be held in any of
5400-438: The festival during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Besides Bruno Walter , they included the conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler , John Barbirolli , Thomas Beecham , Adrian Boult , Fritz Busch , Josef Krips , Pierre Monteux and Vittorio Gui , the pianist Artur Schnabel , the violinist Joseph Szigeti , and the singer Lotte Lehmann , all of whom appeared in Edinburgh late their careers. Rising stars of post-war Europe, such as
5490-477: The festival. In the early years, Glyndebourne fulfilled this role, bringing two productions a year between 1947 and 1951. Hamburg took over in 1952, with no less than six productions. Glyndebourne returned from 1953 to 1955, now with three operas each year, with Hamburg coming again in 1956 with four productions. During the second decade (1957–1966), Edinburgh received a series of different opera companies, starting with La Scala (Piccola Scala) , and continuing with
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#17327650874505580-404: The festival. Leading conductors who performed in the city at that time included Otto Klemperer , Ernest Ansermet , Georg Solti , Carlo Maria Giulini , Yevgeny Mravinsky , István Kertész , Bernard Haitink , George Szell and Leopold Stokowski . During the third decade (1967-1976) a new group of artists came to Edinburgh, many of whom would dominate music for the rest of the century and into
5670-475: The first festival director, the distinguished Austrian-born impresario Rudolf Bing , it had a broadly-based programme, covering orchestral, choral and chamber music, Lieder and song, opera, ballet, drama, film, and Scottish 'piping and dancing' on the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle , a structure that was followed in subsequent years. The Festival has taken place every year since 1947, except for 2020 when it
5760-660: The first time since 1552 in the Assembly Hall on the Mound. The work was revived in 1948. 1949, 1951, 1959 and 1973. Companies came from all over the world, and with increasing frequency. In the first decade (1947–1956), from France, Italy and Canada, in the second (1957–1966), from France, Italy, Greece, Russia, and Poland, and in the third (1967–1976), from the USA, Sweden, Ireland, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany, Italy, Romania, Japan, Belgium, and Switzerland. Notable groups included
5850-401: The first year of its operation (although not known as such at the beginning), and has since grown to be the world's largest arts and media festival. The Edinburgh International Film Festival also began in August 1947 with a programme of documentary films. In the 1990s this festival moved into June. The 1966 Writers' Festival begun by John Calder , Richard Demarco , Jim Haynes , founders of
5940-489: The formation of the Festival Fringe Society. The push for such an organisation was led by Michael Imison , director of Oxford Theatre Group. A constitution was drawn up, in which the policy of not vetting or censoring shows was set out, and the Society produced the first guide to Fringe shows. Nineteen companies participated in the Fringe in that year. By that time it provided a "complete... counter-festival programme" although efforts were still being made to gain publicity through
6030-575: The former Royal (Dick) Veterinary School under the name Summerhall . Edinburgh International Festival The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh , Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially classical music ) and the performing arts are invited to join the festival. Visual art exhibitions, talks and workshops are also hosted. The first 'International Festival of Music and Drama' took place between 22 August and 11 September 1947. Under
6120-449: The late 1970s and some successful Fringe performers transferred to perform works at the Festival. These included Richard Crane and Faynia Williams, who in 1981 produced a sell-out version of The Brothers Karamazov for the Festival, after having been successful in the Fringe during the '70s. The early 1980s saw the arrival of the "super-venue" – locations that contained multiple performing spaces. By 1981 when William Burdett-Coutts set up
6210-447: The more formal International Festival became of mutual benefit. The artistic credentials of the Fringe were established by the creators of the Traverse Theatre , John Calder , Jim Haynes and Richard Demarco , in 1963. While their original objective was to maintain something of the Festival atmosphere in Edinburgh all year round, the Traverse Theatre quickly and regularly presented cutting-edge drama to an international audience at both
6300-421: The name "Fringe" was still not yet in regular usage. By that year, the Fringe was attracting around a dozen companies, and a meeting was held to discuss creating "a small organisation to act as a brain for the Fringe", or what The Scotsman called an "official unofficial festival". A first attempt was made to provide a central booking service in 1955 by students from the university, although it lost money, which
6390-426: The new ticket office. Its current headquarters are at 180 High Street. Acts included The Jim Rose Circus , who performed in 2008, and Tokyo Shock Boys who performed in 1994. The Fringe Club ceased operation in 2004, but various venues still provide "the Best of the Fest" and similar. A computerised booking system was first installed in the early 1990s, allowing tickets to be bought at a number of locations around
6480-532: The next. They included conductors like Pierre Boulez , Colin Davis , Claudio Abbado , Kurt Masur , Zubin Mehta , Riccardo Muti , and Daniel Barenboim (who also often appeared as a pianist) and soloists like the pianists Claudio Arrau , Alfred Brendel , Murray Perahia , and Marta Argerich , and the string players Jacqueline du Pré and Itzhak Perlman . In addition an outstanding group of Soviet artists included
6570-468: The number of companies performing rose from 182 to 494, and new venues such as St Columba's in Newington came on board. Moffat also expanded the street performance aspect and brought in sponsorship deals, particularly local breweries. In this way, the Fringe ascended to its current position as the largest arts festival in the world. This was a deliberate policy by Moffat, who found it difficult to promote
6660-622: The pianist Sviatoslav Richter , cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich , violinists David Oistrakh and Leonid Kogan , and the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya . The founders of the Edinburgh Festival had been closely connected with the Glyndebourne Opera and from the beginning opera was an important part of the programme. The city did not have, and still does not have, ideal facilities for creating original staged opera productions, so guest companies were invited to
6750-536: The shattered and impoverished centres for many years to come, was anxious to consider and investigate the possibility of staging such a Festival somewhere in the United Kingdom in the summer of 1946. He was convinced and he convinced my colleagues and myself that such an enterprise, successfully conducted, might at this moment of European time, be of more than temporary significance and might establish in Britain
6840-552: The stakes to the point where a venue like Aurora (St Stephen's Church, Stockbridge ) could hold its head up in any major world festival. However, in 1982, 24% of the Fringe was housed in The Circuit/Assembly, both of which were being commercially marketed, and this attracted complaints, including from Traverse Theatre founder, Richard Demarco, who felt the Fringe should not have allowed either venue. By 1988, there was, according to former Fringe Administrator Michael Dale,
6930-668: The third decade (1967–1976), Edinburgh Festival Opera were prominent performers, together with the Glasgow -based Scottish Opera . Meanwhile, the tradition of inviting guest companies continued with the German companies Deutsche Oper Berlin , Deutsche Oper am Rhein , Hamburg State Opera , and Frankfurt Municipal Opera , the Italian companies Teatro Comunale, Florence and Teatro Massimo, Palermo , as well as National Theatre, Prague , Hungarian State Opera , and Royal Opera, Stockholm and
7020-408: The time it was not recognised as such, this was the first Edinburgh Festival Fringe . This meant that two defining features of the future Fringe were established at the very beginning – the lack of official invitations to perform and the use of unconventional venues. Originally, these groups referred to themselves as the "Festival Adjuncts" and were also referred to as the "semi-official" festival. It
7110-497: Was a watershed for comedy at the Fringe too. It was the first year of the Perrier Awards , which ran until 2005 and are now known as the Edinburgh Comedy Awards . The alternative comedy scene was also beginning to take shape. Previously, comedy at the Fringe had taken the form of student revues. Now stand-up was becoming a feature. According to Alexei Sayle , "The Fringe then was entirely University revues and plays; there
7200-485: Was blamed on those who had not taken part. In 1956, the famous actor Donald Wolfit performed the solo show The Strong Are Lonely . This was not part of the International Festival, yet nor was it in the Fringe Programme, leading him to question the value of the "Fringe": "Away with the Fringe. To an artist in the theatre there is no such thing as a fringe of art." Formal organisation progressed in 1959, with
7290-765: Was born at Longhope in Orkney , where his father was the minister. Educated at Robert Gordon's College and the University of Aberdeen , he lived in London and then in Edinburgh (in Warriston Crescent). Before turning to drama, he trained as a journalist with the Manchester Guardian . From the time he adapted Molière 's L'Ecole des Femmes for the Scottish stage in 1947 he sought to promote
7380-532: Was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic . A scaled-back version of the festival was held in 2021. The idea of a Festival with a remit to "provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit" and enrich the cultural life of Scotland, Britain and Europe took form in the wake of the Second World War . The idea of creating an international festival within the UK was first conceived by Rudolf Bing ,
7470-415: Was comedy, representing almost 40% of shows, followed by theatre, which was 26.6% of shows. Established in 1947 as an unofficial offshoot to (and on the "fringe" of) the Edinburgh International Festival , it takes place in Edinburgh every August. The combination of Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh International Festival has become a world-leading celebration of arts and culture, surpassed only by
7560-433: Was finished, the Fringe came to be seen as being about revues. It was a few years before an official programme for the Fringe was created. John Menzies compiled a list of shows under the title "Other Events" in their omnibus festival brochure, but it was printer C. J. Cousland who was the first to publish a listings guide, in 1954. This was funded by participating companies and was entitled "Additional Entertainments", since
7650-553: Was first financed by Lord Rosebery with the £10,000 winnings of his horse Ocean Swell that won the only two major horse-races run in wartime including the Jockey Club Cup in 1944. This sum was matched by Edinburgh Town Council and then some money in turn was matched by the Arts Council of Great Britain under the chairmanship of John Maynard Keynes . Bing also co-founded the Festival with Henry Harvey Wood , Head of
7740-648: Was inaugurated at the festival with performances of The Sleeping Beauty with Margot Fonteyn , Robert Helpmann and the Sadler's Wells Ballet Company at the Empire Theatre . They returned in subsequent years, together with companies including the Ballets des Champs-Élysées from Paris, American National Ballet Theatre from New York, the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas (Le Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo),
7830-493: Was not a single piece of stand-up comedy until me and Tony [Allen] arrived." Comedy began an ascent which would see it become the biggest section of the programme by 2008. Moffat resigned as the Fringe Society Administrator in 1981 and was succeeded by Michael Dale, who changed the programme layout and helped the Fringe consolidate. The following year, 1982, The Circuit became a prominent venue. Run by
7920-431: Was not until the following year, 1948, that Robert Kemp , a Scottish playwright and journalist, is credited with coining the title "Fringe" when he wrote during the second Edinburgh International Festival : Round the fringe of official Festival drama, there seems to be more private enterprise than before ... I am afraid some of us are not going to be at home during the evenings! The word "fringe" had in fact been used in
8010-477: Was not yet fully developed, much of the early years of the Fringe has gone unrecorded, except through anecdote. It did not benefit from any official organisation until 1951, when students of the University of Edinburgh set up a drop-in centre in the YMCA , where cheap food and a bed for the night were made available to participating groups. Late-night revues, which would become a feature of Fringes, began to appear in
8100-399: Was suspended along with all of the city's other major summer festivals. This came as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak in the early months of the year, with concerns of spreading the virus any further. The 2021 festival took place during 6–30 August 2021, though it was much reduced in size, with 528 shows in person and 414 online. The 2022 festival took place from 5–29 August 2022 and marked
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