It has begun. The Edinburgh Fringe is upon us. Officially the Fringe doesn't kick off until the 5th August, but there is already a multitude of preview shows on at Gilded Balloon Teviot, The Pleasance, C Venues, Assembly George Square, to name a few of the venues.
The Fringe programme lists 501 shows on today from Oneohone Theatre Company's play “101” about “the world's most famous amnesiac patient” at C Soco, to stand-up comic Zoe Lyons's cryptic-sounding Clownbusting at the Pleasance Courtyard.
The first wave of the Fringe invaders have been among us for a while, stealthily populating empty walls, fences, and any free public spaces with big, brash faces of the myriad acts to come.
The softening-up bombardment of posters, media previews, and marketing ploys is about to give way to the acts themselves.
Site managers and their teams have been working late into the night getting their performance spaces ready for the rush of humanity. I toured some of the venues last night on a bike, around midnight.
A crane at the Teviot House was adorning the rambling student union building with the Gilded Balloon livery.
A few onlookers watched as the Virgin sponsored arches into the Royal Mile venue were hung unceremoniously by workmen in high-vis' vests. The sponsor's orange colours were splashed all the way up the High Street.
The final screws were being drilled into the iconic sign at popular comedy and beer destination the Pleasance Courtyard for today's opening.
It was the kind of warm and balmy night that venue managers are probably praying that Edinburgh will deliver regularly over the next month. Venues have invested heavily in outdoor drinking and eating areas – the Gilded Balloon Teviot has what looked like a kitsch German-schloss themed beer garden taking shape – the Gilded Bar. Underbelly has its terrace bar just outside the Teviot building too.
Assembly, of course, has been up-and-running since last month with the Jazz Festival, and drinkers were lazing under the stars on the astroturf of George Square Gardens. C Soco's urban beer garden in the old Gilded Balloon gap site is also up early this year, with crowds of drinkers therein, enjoying the warm, dry night.
501 pre-shows, beer gardens brimming over, and over three weeks of shows in the pipeline. Yes, the Fringe is most definitely upon us.
- Log in to post comments