NT2573 : Edinburgh Fringe, Lower Stage on High Street
taken 5 years ago, near to Edinburgh, Scotland
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (usually referred to as simply “The Fringe”) is the world's largest arts festival, which in 2018 featured more than 55000 performances of 3548 different shows in 317 venues.
The Fringe was established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival. It takes place annually during the month of August (in 2019, it runs between 2-26 August). It has been called the "most famous celebration of the arts and entertainment in the world" and an event that "has done more to place Edinburgh in the forefront of world cities than anything else (Dale, Michael (1988). Sore Throats and Overdrafts: An illustrated story of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Edinburgh: Precedent Publications. ISBN 0 9512 6502 4).
It is an open access (or "unjuried") performing arts festival, meaning there is no selection committee, and anyone may participate, with any type of performance. Comedy 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 Royal Mile is a series of streets which runs through the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town. The term was first used descriptively in W M Gilbert's Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century (1901), "...with its Castle and Palace and the royal mile between", and was further popularised as the title of a guidebook, published in 1920, From the Castle to Holyrood - "The Royal Mile" by R T Skinner.
The Royal Mile, connects the magnificent Edinburgh Castle, perched high on a base of volcanic rock, with the splendorous Palace of Holyrood, resting in the shadow of Arthur's Seat. From the Castle gates to the Palace gates the street is almost exactly a mile, hence its name. The streets which make up the Royal Mile are (west to east) Castlehill, the Lawnmarket, the High Street, the Canongate and Abbey Strand.