How to report about our Festival Edinburgh experience and do it justice. This is the dilemma that faces me. Its certainly one of the best times to visit Edinburgh and I think something worth doing again. The buzz, the high spirits, the festivity, the all around general good time feeling is one that shouldn’t be missed. Okay – enough with these adjectives and on with the show! Photos here.
| When? | Mid Aug 2007 |
| Why Go? | I think I’ve covered myself in the introduction – the buzz, the opportunity to see lots of cool acts, just all general good fun times. |
| Hints | The Tattoo. Do what you can to get tickets to the Military Tattoo (sell your first born child if you have to … kidding) including calling every opportunity you have to get resale tickets if at first you don’t succeed. Its worth it – trust me! |
The Fringe. If you want to see the  bigger more famous acts at the Fringe try and get tickets before you get to Edinburgh – chances are they would have sold out by the time you get there. Or, if you like to fly by the seat of your pants and don’t mind giving the lesser known acts a go wait until you get to the city and get your tickets from the half price booth. Either way, getting a Fringe guide ahead of time helps you sort through the literally hundreds of performances on offer. All is not lost however if you don’t do any sort of planning (like us) as if they do what they did this year, there will be a tent where they had a tent which allowed you to browse for shows online and purchase the tickets right then and there. Brilliant idea. |
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| Accommodation. Book as far in advance as you can! |
Festival Edinburgh truly offers a lot to the visitor but the reason I was drawn to Edinburgh at this time of year was mainly the Fringe Festival and the Military Tattoo. When we arrived in Edinburgh on Friday the choices on offer for the Fringe was so overwhelming that we had to put off buying tickets until we’d had a chance to review the Guide so our first “event” was the Military Tattoo that evening.
The Military Tattoo
Technically a military tattoo is a military drum performance (thanks wikipedia.) There is apparently a historical 
singificance in that it was used to call the soldiers back to the barracks to turn in for the night. Nowadays it has become a big show and the Tattoo in Edinburgh is definitely one of the biggest and broadcast to millions around the world. Actually the night we went (and the next few nights after that) were being filmed for tv so there’s a miniscule chance we’ll get on the tube!
The Tattoo is held in a courtyard in front of Edinburgh Castle which is pretty cool. There were drums and of course bagpipes galore during the evening but my two favourite performances came from Taipei First Girls’ 
Senior High School who put on a brilliant display of air rifle throwing (I’m sure there’s a technical term for it) and marching and the The Imps Motor Cycle Display Team who demonstrated a few tricks on the motor cycles (name sort of gives it away doesn’t it.) The tricks included riding their bikes backwards and forming pyramids. I think the youngest rider was about 4 years old and didn’t he have the most adorable little mini motor bike. Too cute! We had some interesting international performances as well including the musical Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force Steel Orchestra and The Band of The Moscow Military Conservatoire where some strange man (or woman I guess!) in a bear suit was dancing around.
And, to Sandra’s delight, we even got a few fireworks. It was a really good night though it must be noted that the seats are very very cosy indeed!
The Fringe
Early Saturday morning we decided to hit the ticket tent and sort out our shows for the weekend. We must 
have been quite comical because we kept running outside to check the half price ticket booth and then running back into the tent to check out the reviews for the show. It was madness but funny at the same time. We ended up with a fairly good variety of shows I think but it was only really after we’d seen all the shows that I realised just how busy our schedule was. Actually we made most of our shows with plenty of time to spare except one – which was the result of another show starting late and therefore running over and then us rushing to the wrong venue!
Here is what we saw and here is what we thought!
| What? | Say What? | My Thoughts | Sandra’s Thoughts |
| Breakout | Think JUMP! but set in prison. Extreme Dance Comedy. Breakdancing and beatboxing. | The breakdancing was awesome and the beatboxing was not too shabby either (though sometimes it went on a bit.) The comedy wasn’t too bad though sometimes it descended into cheese. Some of the guys had very nice bodies. I was impressed that the girls were in there breakdancing as well as hard as the guys. Strange story. Could do with some work but before long I’m sure we’ll be seeing them in London’s Peacock Theatre. | Its okay. Nothing special. Please explain what the frog was? |
| Sista She and The House of the Holy Bootay | Three ladies bring us comedy set to hip hop. There’s singing, there’s rapping, there’s dancing and costume changes. | In a word brilliant. This show was probably my favourite of the weekend – it had me in stitches and I could bop (safely in my chair of course) to good music at the same time. The ladies somehow seemed to tackle a few deeper issues without making it too obvious and depressing as most comedians tend to get. Amazing voices. | Fairly funny. I think I would have been more comfortable if it was a bigger audience. It was quite light-hearted. |
| Eurobeat | Its Eurovision in sunny Sarajevo. | Very well done and has all the feel of a Eurovision contest right down to an introduction by that dude who makes the critical (but funny) comments on Eurovision. Lots of crowd involvement and probably the biggest show we saw. Quite funny in the obvious way. | My country won (Grace’s comment: Setup!). It was good. The man in PVC pink hot pants was cool. |
| Debbie Does Dallas – The Musical | Described as: Lisa loves Dick, Dick’s into Debbie, Debbie wants Dallas … but will she go all the way to get there? ‘Legally Blonde’ meets ‘American Pie’ in this ultimate porn-again party night out! Cheeky cheerleading fun! | The title says it all. All the um um is implied of course though there is some nudity at one stage. A very funny musical with songs that were surprisingly good. The audience is quite close to the stage which gives it a level of intimacy that could have been awkward if the musical hadn’t come off (pardon the pun) so well. | Favourite for the festival. Well written and easy going. Could be on West End with a bit of work. |
| Jerry Sadowitz | Comedian, Magician, Psychopath | A comedian, magician and psychopath is pretty much what we got. I found him outrageously funny and I liked how he combined his comedy with his magic. He definitely picked on people in the audience including in his victims a gorgeous blonde woman, a man in a wheelchair, bald men and a woman with, er, a big chest. Although funny, he was that typical offensive comedian making plenty of off colour jokes including the McCanns. He was however quick to pick on himself at the same time. | Didn’t enjoy the comedy particularly him joking about an audience member in a wheel chair. Magic was okay although very high street. What you would expect to find in Hamley’s. |
| The Devil, Chess: A Burlesque! | Cabaret theatre | I’m still reeling from this show. I think this is what the Fringe is about – something that allows a true artist to put his work out there. This was the show we were actually late for and Sandra and I got placed into different parts of the room. I don’t even know where to start with this one except to say it was very in your face with the burlesque dancers, both men and women, in very little clothing sitting on your laps at times. And all of this was happening in a very very small room. I’m sure there was quite a bit of meaning to the play but all I could think of was how hot I was (from having to run to the venue) and wondering how the girls were not falling out of their tops! | My young innocent mind has been scarred for life. |
| Ali McGregor’s Late-nite Variety-nite Night | Basically a sampling of perfomances from the Fringe. | This was a very interesting concept. Ali McGregor, who was a comedian and had a show on her own right, was MC to this variety night where we saw comedy, music, circus, skits, fantastic tricks, and a strong woman. I totally enjoyed myself though at 2am in the morning it was lucky most of the acts were quite engaging. I thought a perfect way to finish the Fringe (though it would have been a good way to start the Fringe as well as it gave you an idea of what the acts could deliver in their own shows.) I liked the unrehearsed feel of the night as well. | Its very late. |
In addition to the paying shows there are heaps of street performers to entertain. Interestingly enough for 
the ones we saw (mainly involving circus type performances like acrobatics, juggling, etc.) they all seem to use similar sorts of jokes during the show including the “hide in the crowd and pretend I’m part of the audience trick” (they get you to clap loudly to attract passers-by who get curious and join in not knowing what exactly is going on), the “step on the grey brick” joke for audience participants (all the bricks are grey), the “get two men to hug and kiss” joke and finally when asking for donations at the end the “its not funny now is it” joke. Still, each show was original and funny in its own way and is definitely worth a gander.
And that concludes a very long-winded review of Festival Edinburgh. Festival Edinburgh will not disappoint!
I think you forgot to mention that they MURDERED a poor little gold fish in the ali mcgregor. I am still not happy about that at all!
They didn’t murder it! The gold fish was fine! That’s what I’m believing and that’s what I’m sticking to. You have to admit that particular act was pretty good