The Edinburgh Fringe Festival
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The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is officially the biggest arts festival in the world, taking place for three weeks in August each year in Scotland's capital city. The event began in 1947 when eight theatre groups turned up uninvited to the first Edinburgh International Festival. As time went on, more artists came to Edinburgh to perform on the outskirts of the EIF, and by 1958 the Festival Fringe Society was created to provide information, a central box office and a published programme of all the shows on offer. Fundamental to its constitution was the policy that the Society should take part in no artistic vetting of the festival's programme: in other words, anyone with a story to tell and a venue willing to host them can come to Edinburgh as part of the Fringe.
The festival caters for everyone from the biggest names in showbiz to the performers in the street and covers all sorts of art forms, such as theatre, comedy, children's shows, dance, physical theatre, musicals, operas, all genres of music, exhibitions, and events.
With no artistic selection anything goes and the Fringe has hosted performances that have been cutting edge, controversial, experimental and brilliant. This open access policy for artists and performers has ensured the variety and diversity of the work on show is truly staggering and festival visitors have come to expect the unexpected!
With an eager festival going audience flocking to Edinburgh many artists choose the Fringe to showcase their new work and the festival has been a launch pad for the careers of Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Eddie Izzard, Robin Williams, Jude Law, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Billy Connolly and many more.
