Edinburgh Festival Fringe
August 7 · Level 10 · #72 of 2238
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe fills the city with theatre, comedy, dance and performances that resist easy labels. Held each August, it is an open-access festival without a central artistic jury selecting its entire programme.
How it is celebrated: audiences move between stage shows, stand-up sets and street performances, often taking a chance on unfamiliar artists. Venues range from established theatres to pubs and spaces temporarily converted for performances.
Its beginnings were wonderfully unofficial: eight groups arrived in 1947 to perform despite having no invitation to the International Festival's programme.