Return from Edinburgh

It's been two weeks since I returned from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and now that I've had some time to reflect I feel I ought to share my verdict of it.

First off, I must say that it was insane; that is, in the best possible way. It's one thing reading that there's three thousand or more shows going on, but it's another to be on the Royal Mile when everybody's out and flyering as if there's a flyer shortage. Literally every taste is catered for; comedy, theatre, spoken word, cabaret, the list is comprehensively endless. The shows I saw were certainly indicative of the variety on display.

One such show, Janis Joplin: Full Tilt was a musical detailing in the space of an hour the life and death of the famous singer. It blended some of Joplin's hits together with acted segments and archived recordings of Joplin to produce a fantastic show with no fault in the musical department. Especially impressive was how Angela Darcy's voice was identical to Joplin's, so that it was almost impossible to spot the difference. I didn't know anything about Janis Joplin before, so this show actually proved educational for me. For that alone, I think it was brilliant.

Kevin P. Gilday is the Man Who Loved Beer was a completely different affair. This was the first time I'd seen spoken word in action outside university, and my verdict is somewhat conflicted. It detailed Gilday's relationship with beer and the effects it had on his everyday life. Compared to what I've seen of spoken word in the past, it was skilfully done and Gilday's Glaswegian tones definitely added to it. However, I feel that most spoken word artists tend to use the same pace and tone of delivery when reciting their poems. Gilday was no exception, although in this case I think it was suited to the material.

The other show I ended up seeing was a performance by Out of the Blue. This a-cappella group is made up of Oxford undergraduates, and appeared on that TV talent contest that everybody seems to love back in 2011. They performed a selection of songs, including their cover of a Shakira song that went viral, and they were better singers than I was expecting. They even managed a bit of improvisation with a member of the audience during a couple of songs. The hilarious enthusiasm with which they carried the performance made them an act worth seeing twice - which unfortunately I didn't.

To say that these shows represent the tip of the iceberg is devaluing icebergs. The whole of Edinburgh is packed to the brim with shows during the Fringe, each one of them vying for an audience and a review or two. Some have questioned the quality of the Fringe in recent years, but if the shows I saw are anything to go by, then the question of quality is somewhat irrelevant. The Fringe is designed to enable artists to try new things, and all of these shows were great in their own right.

I must also mention my visits to a few other places in Edinburgh. I took a tour of HMY Britannia, which is hardly your average cruise ship. I had expected the Britannia to be fifteen hundred tons of wealth on water, but it was much less ostentatious than that. It reminded me of my grandmother's house, albeit with narwhal tusks and whale ribs in the main dining room. The overall feel was of a ship designed to act as a floating country house, which was apparently the Queen's original intention.

The other place I visited was Edinburgh Zoo. The zoo is famous for its giant pandas, but I didn't see them because the female, Tian Tian, was pregnant and the enclosure had been closed as a result. I did see several other animals though, including a pair of jaguars roaring at each other, rhinos enjoying their lunch and penguins sunbathing just before a thunderstorm arrived. The zoo seems good enough, with decent and spacious enclosures for the animals to run around in. However , judging by the way one of the jaguars was calling for food, and the bare pen the tigers sleep in, it still has some small room for improvement.

When I look back on my visit to Edinburgh, the city seems like one of the better places I've visited; that's to say it's one of the few places I've visited in recent years. The place is brimming with culture, vibrancy and warmth, and nowhere is this more apparent than during the Fringe. I highly recommend that if you must go to one of the Edinburgh festivals, surely it must be this one.

The Tiger Poet vs. Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Although the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow may have somewhat stolen the limelight from Edinburgh this year, the city is currently right in the middle of its annual Festival Fringe. Thousands of shows are being performed across the whole of the city, ranging from dramatic theatre to student comedy. I myself am going up to Edinburgh this week to partake in some of the madness, and possibly to see a show or two. At the moment though I'm wondering what else Scotland's capital city has to offer the unsuspecting Welshman who doesn't travel much these days.

Certainly it has no shortage of places to stay, if you're planning to stay in the city like me. Unfortunately August is one of the most expensive times of the year when looking to rent a flat or an apartment in Edinburgh. I found this out after scouring the web for places to stay. Anything that costs a thousand pounds was out of my price range, and so I've settled for an apartment in the centre that was going relatively cheep. I haven't yet seen the apartment, but I'm fairly confident that it'll be good enough to last the week.

This will not only be the first time I've been to the Edinburgh Fringe, but also the first time I've been to Edinburgh. I was in Scotland two years ago when I visited Lochgoilhead and passed through Glasgow, but didn't get a chance to stop in the city. I didn't get much of an impression of Glasgow from what little I saw of it, but by spending a week in Edinburgh I will get a full and informed experience of the city this time. It will no doubt be very busy, with most of the tourists there to see the acts performing as part of the Fringe or for the Edinburgh International Festival and Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Either way, it's sure to be hectic.

The Fringe itself is the largest arts festival anywhere in the world. Over three thousand shows are being performed in nearly three hundred venues across the city, making this the prime location for aspiring performers to get noticed and to find success. Many of the shows at the Fringe are brand new productions in search of a review, but a lot of already established acts have performed in Edinburgh including the likes of John Bishop and Alan Davies. I suspect that I'll get to see a lot of the new shows while I'm there, and it'll be nice to see what the new generation of creative people bring to the stage.

As I understand it, Edinburgh is quite a bit bigger than my village, and so I'm not sure I'm going to navigate the city without getting lost at some point. There must be maps on the high street to help me with this, but if all else fails I'll just walk into the nearest bookstore and buy an atlas. Hopefully I'll get to see some of the other sights, such as the castle and those famous pandas everyone keeps mentioning.

All in all I'm still not sure what to expect of the Fringe. It certainly is a big step up from going to the town centre, but I've got a fair idea of where to go once I get there. With all these shows to choose from, a laugh or two is guaranteed at least. Come the weekend, I'll see for myself.

If I survive I'll see you in Edinburgh.