Before I bought my tickets for Scotland, I had no real idea what to expect there. I didn’t know much about the country other than kilts and bagpipes. I soon discovered that going to Scotland in August–anywhere in Scotland–is somewhat problematic, because everyone and their brother comes to Scotland in August due to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. For three or four weeks, the city is filled with performers: actors, comedians, magicians, musicians, street performers, and more. Anyone who wants to come and can find a spot somewhere to perform is welcome, and many (many) do.
Since we were accidentally going to be in Edinburgh right in the middle of all that insanity, we figured it would be best to lean into it. We bought tickets for five performances.
The first was one on the history of the Scottish fiddle. I was unable to attend, due to that pesky appendectomy, but Denisa and the girls went and had a good time. One of the performers discussed the history, and a fiddle player performed songs to illustrate that history.
The second was for a performance of “The Importance of Being . . . Earnest?” In it, a group of not-very-good actors are performing Oscar Wilde’s play. It all goes swimmingly until the actor who’s supposed to play Earnest fails to show up. Frantic, the troupe lands on the idea of having one of the audience members play the part, instead. (This isn’t a gimmick: they literally chose a regular audience member from the crowd). From there, more and more actors end up needing to drop out (laryngitis, broken arm, etc), and by the end of the show, every single “actor” on stage is actually an audience member recruited for a different role. It was hilarious, and the whole family loved it.
Third up was a sort of interactive scavenger hunt designed to take the participants around the city on a quest to find out all about mythical creatures. I had really been looking forward to it, as it sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately, I had to admit to myself that hiking all around the city wasn’t something that I was going to be able to do, so once again, Denisa went with the girls. Sadly, it was not right up their alley, and they didn’t have as much fun with it as they might have had I been there to help.
I was able to go to the fourth show, however: an organ recital in St. Giles’ Cathedral. I’m not sure MC was really up for 1.25 hours of organ music, but the whole family came, and I at least really enjoyed it. 🙂 I’m a sucker for organs (note my ability to refrain from making an appendix joke here), and I love to hear the ones in cathedrals actually put through their paces. This one had some great numbers, and it ended with the volume turned all the way to 11. Fantastic.
Finally, we travelled out to Lauriston Castle, a big mansion-esque building on the outskirts of town. It felt kind of like I was going to the Clue mansion in the movie. Normally, you can tour the estate, but for Fringe, they had three different magicians on hand, and we got to see each perform in a different room. There were two card magicians and a mentalist, and it was thoroughly entertaining.
After having been in Edinburgh during Fringe, I can see how easy it would be to spend a whole ton of time seeing all sorts of shows. There are people out and about promoting just about everything, and it would be simple to just go to the city and buy tickets the day of the performances for whatever interested you. They’re not expensive, for the most part, though I imagine particularly good shows might sell out. (But there are soooooo many shows . . . ) All in all, I’m very glad we were there for it.