Edinburgh - 'The Festival City'
The Edinburgh International Festival was founded in 1947. Since then the festival has earned its reputation as one of the world's greatest celebrations of the arts. Each year during the summer months Edinburgh becomes the world's Festival City with a huge range and number of artistic events, performances and exhibitions being staged.
The founders of the Festival believed that the programmes should be of the highest possible artistic standard presented by the best artists in the world. The objective was that the Festival should enliven and enrich the cultural life of Europe, Britain and Scotland and that it should provide a period of flowering of the human spirit.
As a result, audiences from around the world flock to the city to experience the thrilling atmosphere. The festivities offer a unique opportunity to experience the excitement of live performance by internationally renowned artists as well as the joy of discovering new and unfamiliar works.
From its earliest years the Festival attracted to the city more and more amateur and professional groups, who were happy to perform on the fringe of the main event. It was not long before this peripheral activity was formalised as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, and today literally hundreds of shows are presented under its aegis. The range of endeavour on the Fringe is extraordinarily wide and occasionally bizarre. The Fringe is noted for adventure, a ferment of ideas and an irrepressible spirit - a combination that has made an invaluable contribution to arousing public interest in the arts.
On the corner of Waverley Bridge and Market Street are the offices of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which is one of the most stirring spectacles of the Festival. More than 40 years of the Tattoo have proved that there is something thrilling and compelling about performances by military and pipe bands under floodlight, especially when presented against the incomparable backdrop of the illuminated castle. More than 350,000 people from every country in the world see the Tattoo during three weeks of performances on the Castle Esplanade.
The International Film Festival runs alongside that of the performing arts. There is also in the course of the year an International TV Festival, an Edinburgh International Jazz Festival, and an Edinburgh International Folk Festival. Now there is an Edinburgh International Science Festival. The festivals proliferate, as more and more people discover that Edinburgh's pleasant environment is an ideal backcloth for any cultural event. Edinburgh is the city that likes to be visited.
Not to be forgotten is Hogmanay, celebrated by Scots on 31 December to mark the passing of the old year, which is the oldest of the city's festivals since its origins predate Christianity. So durable and popular is the Hogmanay tradition, bringing large crowds out into the streets at midnight, that in recent years the city authorities have drawn up a programme of festivities for the end of December. The entertainment includes events such as a torchlight procession, street carnivals, concerts, street parties, dancing and fairground fun for all ages.
Visit the gateway to all Edinburgh's festivals:
