It was a dream come true to get to Edinburgh for the Fringe and it didn’t disappoint. Part 3 of this trip was 4 days at the festival before heading off to to the Scottish Highlands. We had accomodation and 9 shows booked before leaving home but such is the colour and movement around the city, you can hang around all day for free and be totally entertained. In the Royal Mile which is the ancient street leading up to the castle, there are professional buskers performing regularly for 45mins at a time. When they are resting, many of the hundreds of acts that are playing at the festival get a 15 minute window to perform and sell their acts. It’s difficult to know where to look and you have to check yourself at times to just stop and take a breath.

We took a gamble with a 9 show pass and let the festival choose but we shouldn’t have worried as the shows were diverse and fascinating. The 4 days couldn’t have ended any better with Lynda meeting one of her idols Hannibal Buress, a New York comic and seeing him in an intimate theatre, then have him do the “apple juice” bit just for her was the “it bit”.

We were fortunate enough to spend a week at the Montreal Comedy Festival in 2017 and we would highly recommend that, but for sheer eclecticism and energy, there is truly nothing like Edinburgh. There is an unadulterated sense of free expression and lack of pretension that we hadn’t witnessed before which we loved. Highly recommended.

These are the diary notes and photos from the first day:

Edinburgh 6/8/11

by Ian Wilson on Saturday, August 6, 2011 at 7:40pm

Edinburgh,  9 a.m. Saturday. One thing’s for sure, Starbucks serve shit coffee all round the world, not just in Melbourne, but they do have the internet. We arrived in Edinburgh yesterday on the train from Liverpool. Half an hour out of Liverpool and you start to see the green fields of England…still flat but not dissimilar to South Gippsland…lots of fat sleepy cows and villages that go back 600 years. As you get closer it starts to “hilly up” a bit and Edinburgh is pretty much the start of some serious hills which we will see next week. What can you say about Edinburgh other than glorious? I have friends that have seen a lot of the world and rave about Eastern Europe and other places but for me this is the most beautiful city I have ever seen. We walked to the top of the castle straight away then down the Royal Mile thru a sea of people and street artists. The gardens are breathtaking and every bit of grass looks like the MCG! Not a weed or western Melbourne scotch thistle to be seen. Every building is old..not a Metricon home anywhere thank Christ! We are staying next to the zoo, but the only zoo we have come here for is the human variety and there is so much of it here. As Lynnie would say, “goin’ off like a frog in a sock”. Quick facts- Over 1 million people converge here for the Fringe and there are approximately 2500 acts to choose from. It’s not all about comedy of course. There is the Tattoo and dance, music and a big kids’ programme. For us though, it’s about the comedy and we have booked 9 acts in 3 days and the rest you just take in on the streets. For me it’s a dream come true and I’m in hog heaven. Both my heroes Peter Cook and Bill Hicks were stars here and Lano and Woodley also won the Perrier Award here for best act in the 90’s. To cap it all off the Saints won last night! Any happier and I’ll explode! Speaking of which, after 6 days of English breakfasts I finally took Lynnie’s advice and ate some fruit this morning as I was feeling the onset of scurvy! 

Day 2 and the heavens opened:

Edinburgh 7/8/11

by Ian Wilson on Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 8:11pm

Edinburgh Sunday 7/8/11. Well my Scottish landlords Hazel and Joe warned us before we left, “It may get a wee bit wet at times” and right on cue it has rained for nearly 24 hours. It’s that nice rain like Melbourne Spring rain and it’s still not windy or cold thankfully. Looks to be clearing which is good for all the street performers. There was a rugby union test match between Scotland and Ireland yesterday much to the delight of the publicans around Murrayfield. Thankfully the Scots won as there were hordes of massive tattooed men in kilts blind drunk wandering the streets last night. We grabbed our Festival passport yesterday which gives us 3 random shows a day for 3 days. We thought this might give us access to some shows we wouldn’t normally go to. Yesterday we saw a jazz duet playing beautiful standards in the bottom bar of the Raddison and they had their own video slide show of Scottish countryside playing in the background. Sublime and something that we would never have gone to see. Next was a lunatic foursome from Korea dressed as infants and behaving like them but using circus skills, magic, beatboxing and hi jinx. Very funny. Finally a pasty, sweaty whinging pom Matt Green who gave cutting observations about the way we communicate. Very engaging. Before the rain came it’s very noticeable that the light here is stunning similar to Tassie. It’s a photographer’s heaven. Just a shame I’m not one! No pollution or ozone layer. Anyway we’re off to 3 more very different shows and in between try and get a bit outside the city for a look. 

Day 3 and the start of a love affair with Ian Rankin books:

Edinburgh Sunday

by Ian Wilson on Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 9:12pm

Sunday was wet … all day. It didn’t however dampen the enthusiasm of the punters and a great day was had again. There’s been so much on it’s hard to remember what we did 2 days ago. We started with a tour through the back streets of The Burg with a Billy Connolly -like character Colin. The tour is inspired by the Rebus books written by Ian Rankin. There were a number of “Rankin-ophiles” from all over the world with us on the tour. Lynda and I have since bought a couple of books to read on the trip. The tour included a lot of literary history and gave some insight into the proud medical history of the University. Next were 6 Japanese guys doing a show called “Technodelic”. It was truly amazing and impossible to describe … just an audio visual feast mixed with perfect acrobatic timing. Left us gaping in awe! In the evening we saw a contemporary US production of Hamlet which was totally enthralling despite our limited knowledge of Shakespearean speak! (I only ever did Macbeth). The beauty of most of the performances here is their intimacy. Most venues will only take 50-80 people so it’s right in your face which heightens the experience. Often the act will have to remove their  props to make way for the next act. Highlight for me on Sunday was Lynda getting around Edinburgh dressed like a 17thcentury waif. Her shoes were still wet from the previous day so she had rolled up jeans, thongs and a hoodie. I have a photo of her begging for her supper on the streets. 

Day 4 and sadly our last day in this magnificent city. It was time to get on the bus and have a look at Leith, a notoriously tough precinct where the Rebus character came from. It’s doing it’s best to shake its rugged tag but has a long way to go. Spent a couple of hours in Leith then back to the city but stopped for a walk up to the National Monument which has stunning vistas. We also did a tour of the Edinburgh underground with a suitably terrifying guide to deliver horrific stories in that strong Scottish twang!:

Edinburgh Monday

by Ian Wilson on Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 9:42pm

Edinburgh- Monday. What a day this was yesterday. It was  our last official Fringe day, so we attacked it with all the vigour and passion it deserved until we couldn’t move and passed out. Good thing we’re not drinking anymore or we would have stood no chance. Started with an hour in the National Museum, which was beautiful. We then walked more and more streets that we hadn’t visited and went to see an avant-garde French farce based on an Academy Award winning animation. Bizarre, funny and clever. Then we went to see some of the “Kwinana”of Edinburgh on the bus, the waterside area of Leith. They are trying to gentrify this area and have the old Britannia docked there for tourists and nice shops. Still a work in progress and while they have seagulls the size of emus hanging around, it may be a while coming. On the way back to the city we checked out the national monument which was spectacular and peaceful…a nice break from the madness of the Royal Mile. Next show was a rendition of a 1940’s BBC Radio show which was hilarious and incredibly authentic. We then went for a tour under the city looking at cells where 40+ people used to live in the 1600’s. Damp, dark and dripping, the guide didn’t draw a breath in 45mins describing the horror and at times scared the shit out of us. Our next show was the Tale of Leila and Leigh, a brilliantly written and acted play about disillusioned youth in Scotland. Talk about variety!! That’s what the Fringe is all about. We did find time to eat but it was terribly predictable. The same Turkish restaurant and all we had were shawarmas and ice creams. Less said the better. Then we came to the grand finale of the Fringe. Arguably Lynda’s favourite comedian, New York’s Hannibal Buress just happened to be playing and we scored 2 for 1 tickets. We were killing time before the show in the bar tent when who should walk near us listening to his Ipod but the great man himself. We had a chat and he was just as Lynda hoped, humble, casual and cool. I took a photo of this momentous occasion and his show was brilliant. He even finished with our favourite joke, apple juice. Off to the highlands today