Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that takes place each summer, mostly in August, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Though the festivals are put on by various organizations unrelated to each other, and so are officially separate events, they are regarded by many visitors as part of the same event; and together they form the largest annual cultural festival in the world. The Edinburgh Festival is member of the Global Cultural Districts Network.
The original, and still the largest, component festivals are the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (The Fringe); the latter is in its own right larger than any other similar event in the world.
History
The Edinburgh International Festival was established in 1947 in a post-war effort to "provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit".[1] That same year, eight theatrical companies "gatecrashed" the official Festival by organizing their own event, outside the official auspices of the EIF; this started the movement which grew into the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe, or (incorrectly) the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.[2]
The EIF and the Fringe remain independent bodies and run separate programmes each year. In more recent years various other annual cultural festivals have been created in Edinburgh, again by separate organizations, though taking place at around the same time.
The festivals
Listed in order of foundation; * = member of the umbrella body Festivals Edinburgh:
- Edinburgh International Festival (founded 1947)* — The original and "official" festival consisting of classical and contemporary theatre, opera, music, dance, visual arts, talks and workshops.
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe (1947)* — now the largest of all the festivals and indeed the largest arts festival in the world.[3] Includes theatre, comedy, music, musicals, dance and children's shows.
- Edinburgh Free Fringe (2006) – A festival of free shows
- Free Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2004) – Another festival of free shows
- Edinburgh International Film Festival or EIFF (1947)* was traditionally held in August but, from 2008 is being held in late June.[4]
- Edinburgh Military Tattoo (1950)*
- Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival (1978)*
- Edinburgh International Book Festival (1983)*
- Edinburgh International Science Festival (1988)*
- Edinburgh International Children’s Festival - originally the Imaginate Festival (1990)*
- Scottish International Storytelling Festival (1990)*
- Edinburgh's Hogmanay (1994)*
- Edinburgh Mela (1995) — celebrating Edinburgh's South Asian & African communities
- Edinburgh People's Festival (2002, but claims heritage from earlier festival of same name 1951-1954)
- Edinburgh Art Festival (2004)*
- Edinburgh Annuale (2004) — contemporary art
- Festival of Politics (2005)
- Just Festival originally the Festival of Spirituality and Peace (2005)
The following festival also occurs in Edinburgh during August, but is an industry gathering:
Former festivals:
- Edinburgh Interactive Festival (2003)
- Edinburgh International Internet Festival (1999)
- Edinburgh International Marketing Festival (2010)
- Edinburgh Swing Festival (2006)
- iFest (2007) — the Internet Festival and Conference
- West Port Book Festival (2008) – a free book festival involving secondhand bookshops in the West Port area
Notes and references
- ↑ History of the Festival
- ↑ Edinburgh Festival Fringe website
- ↑ Fringe Facts. edfringe: Official site of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2005. Accessed 26 June 2005.
- ↑ Moving times at EIFF
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edinburgh Festival. |
- Edinburgh Festivals a guide to the festivals that take place in Edinburgh which are members of Festivals Edinburgh
- EdinburghFestivalGuide.co.uk a comprehensive listing of all (small and large) Edinburgh festivals
- Edinburgh Festivals at DMOZ
- Edinburgh Festival Guide
- A History of the Edinburgh Festivals
- Edinburgh Festival Classroom resources
- National Library of Scotland: SCOTTISH SCREEN ARCHIVE (selection of archive films about the Edinburgh Festival)