Going to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival was up there with our trip to go clubbing in Ibiza: bucket list material. So how did we make the most of this week at the Fringe? With grit, powernaps and careful planning.
Where we stayed: 67 Brunswick St,Leith
We booked an Airbnb a long way out of this trip – actually probably 7 months out because we were warned by some Scottish travellers on our travels in Costa Rica in February it was a very, very popular during the Fringe Festival and impossible to get accommodation at the last minute. They were right. It is hard getting accommodation even that early and very, very expensive. This apartment was in a lovely Georgian terrace – light filled, quiet, a well equipped kitchen and located in a clearly very trendy part of Edinburgh south of the Old Town on the road to Leith.The street was full of these beautiful Georgian terraces with supermarkets, bars and restaurants all within 5 minutes walk. The lesson we learnt, however, is that it was a decent 30 minute walk to almost every venue we went to, We felt like locals, avoided public transport but had to plan for pretty long walks every time we left the house for the gigs we booked.Would I change things next time? Probably not because the peace, convenience and quiet of the neighbourhood made up for the long walks we did each day and night. We got our steps up (and more) every day.
Booking shows: Use the website and the app
The hard copy Fringe Festival program is literally over three hundred pages long. I did some research beforehand on the official website and downloaded the Fringe app at the beginning of the year, but didn’t even attempt to book anything until we actually arrived because it was all quite confusing where everything was, who the artists were and when things were on. We arrived in the first week of the festival so I actually think that is a good time as everyone was very fresh and enthusiastic, There are also lots of free gigs as all the artists are testing things out. Once we got to our accommodation, we dived pretty quickly into booking everything that appealed as quickly as possible. It was pretty hard choosing from the 1000s (I’m not exaggerating) of shows available but we agreed to stick to comedy and cabaret. That narrowed the field to something more manageable and also only being able to go to gigs that were on in the opening week helped. We did a combination of free events (where you basically pay as much as you feel like on the day) and paid gigs for better known or proven artists. It was good to have a hard copy of the program and then an account via the app so you filter times, venues and types of shows. You then booked and paid through the app. We also worked out that Mondays and Tuesdays were 2 for 1 gigs so saved on booking some of those too.
Our first free Fringe comedy gig was on the completely opposite side of town in a pub and we had no idea what to expect – would it be packed and would there be a queue? The answer was no – there was about 12 people in a tiny room downstairs for a hilarious young Irish comic, Darren Gaffney testing the waters. He was very, very funny and it was very intimate as everyone there got involved with the jokes given the small venue.It was probably the farthest we walked but well worth the positive first experience and we also got to walk the Royal Mile and get the vibe of how busy the city was for this month – actually crazy! Also we realised lots of tourists are here for the Edinburgh Tattoo which we were not. They completely transform the Edinburgh Castle with huge stands and close it off most days so that is another whole experience in itself some people come for.
After the seal was broken on the first gig, we dived head first into the rest of the week. We booked, on average, 3 – 4 gigs a day once we sorted out where everything was and how doable it was to move from one gig to another. We generally started around 3pm and finished with a show around 9pm but did have a couple of much later nights when we booked cabaret shows which all tend to start after 11pm. We walked across the North Bridge every day to and from gigs as we soon worked out most of the venues are near the university. For some strange reason, the city had decided to do major road works and restoration work on this bridge which was the only way to most of the Fringe venues so to say it was a rat run is an understatement.Lucky there is so many beautiful buildings along the way it didn’t ever get dull.
By the third day we had things down to a fine art. We realised that drinks and food out were sooo expensive. A shitty plastic cup of red wine at a venue was literally $30 and all the food was fried bog. So we made the most of our kitchen and cooked an early dinner most days and took our own booze in a water bootle or bought cans of wine at Tescos for about $5. Very unclassy but at least the festival didn’t bankrupt us by the end of the week!
Some of the best gigs we went to were the “free ones” which are not really free because you end up paying around $10 each as you leave otherwise you feel like a complete jerk exploiting these young talents trying to make it at the Fringe. They all told the same story at the end of each show that they are essentially funding themselves for playing the Fringe. The organisation gives them the venue for free but they pay for everything else – so most make a huge loss. It actually surprised me given how much money the Fringe organizers must pull in each year that they are not able to pay the artists. We saw comics from Scotland, England, Ireland, Canada, America, New Zealand and Australia. We saw male, female, straight, gay, lesbian, non binary, trans performers – it was a most inclusive and kind celebration of all talents. We saw seasoned professionals and amateurs who had given up their real jobs to try their luck at the Fringe. We saw a couple of dud under-rehearsed shows but given that we clocked up around 19 shows in 7 days we had an amazing hit rate with high quality, polished routines that were laugh out loud for most of the show. We sat in some tiny rooms at the back of pubs or record stores, in a yurt, in a hotel conference room, in a shipping container, in a university lecture theatre and even in an underground cave cellar. The venues were certainly diverse. We ended up going back to some of the same venues over and over again near the university quarter on West Nicholson Street because we liked their vibe and they had lots of free shows to pick from starting around 1pm and going all night.
There were some running themes in most of the routines (mental health/breakdowns, cost of living crisis, bad relationships, coming up with a theme for the show etc) so it was really refreshing to hear and see some completely unique stories and shows. There was an American comic who regaled us with empathetic and kind insights into her time spent as the receptionist at a BDSM dungeon in New York. Or the madcapped Broken Planet cabaret show which is hard to actually describe it was so wacky. Stand outs on the very last night were two completely different Australian comedy shows. Brett Blake was a mullet haired bogan from a tiny country town in WA who told us a heartwarming and hysterical story about the time he was arrested as a kid for getting accidentally involved in a suburban riot. Then we saw CVNT which was incredibly clever and exactly about what you think it says. Turns out she was also an Australian performer not that we worked that out end when she let down her literal c*nt costume and persona.
We also made sure we included some cabaret shows as they always deliver with a mixture of singing, comedy, dancing and weirdness. One show was also a whiskey tasting comedy gig in a venue inside restored 18th Century vaults called The Caves so that was good combo!
You may not believe me but we also did manage some actual sightseeing around our zone. The gorgeous Calton Hill was about a 30 minute hike from our house so we roamed that elevated area, took in the sights on an incredibly clear, sunny Edinburgh day then went down towards Holyrood Palace. Another day we went towards the old town to visit the famous Greyfriars Kirkyard Cemetery which is home to the loyal dog, Greyfriars Bobby statue and Tom Riddell’s grave, supposedly the inspiration for JK Rowling’s Tom Riddle/Voldemort. There were so many open air venues so most nights it was great to be outside and enjoying the long sunny nights of a far northern Summer. I loved one evening we sat outside in Hunter Square near the Royal Mile between gigs watching a street performer eat fire and stand on impossibly small balancing sticks, drinking a terrible Tescos rose wine from a can then seeing the local police arrest a local for street drinking – yikes! Admittedly he had no teeth and was wearing the favored tight Adidas tracksuit and bumbag of the sort favoured by most dealers. So maybe our disguise as decent, sophisticated Australians worked.
Edinburgh’s version of summer is a little different to mine. The temperature rarely cracked 20 degrees and for 2 of the days we were there there was a code red wind warning as an Arctic blast enveloped the city. It also closed down the Tattoo and quite a few of the outdoor Fringe venues (like the yurt we went to the day before). Lucky we had packed for the Arctic blasts of a UK summer so all the winter clothes came in handy this week.
The verdict: Expect to be cry-laughing, offended, shocked, moved but mostly highly entertained. I have probably never spent a week laughing so much which is a rare, good thing. There is a lot of swearing, accents you can’t always understand but you laugh anyway. There are jokes that are specific to a certain cultures, towns or regions which were also lost on us a bit but it is interesting to research after to get why others found it funnier. No topic was taboo so wokeness seems on the wane. We clocked up around 20,000 steps a day walking to and from venues so even though they were late nights and lots of pre-show drinks we felt pretty fit by the end of the week. Expect enormous crowds in the Old Town. The crush along the Royal Mile and some streets was crazy. But everyone was there for a good time and made the best of what felt like a cattle yard in some sections of the city. Edinburgh is a wonderful city. I loved the broad tree lined streets and elegant brownish grey sandstone buildings. The towering castle and hilly surrounds add to the uniqueness. There is a regality to the city you don’t really find anywhere else. Fringe was fab!
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