The Fringe, the world's largest Arts Festival, is held annually in the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. The first festival took place in 1947, when several theater companies arrived in Edinburgh for the International Arts Festival without invitation and gave performances without the approval of the management. Since then, a kind of talent show "Fringe" has been held annually a week before the opening of the International Arts Festival.
In 2012, the Fringe program included almost 2,700 different shows, including Russian troupes. One of the main rules of the festival is that there is no special selection of participants, so almost everyone can take part in it.
Compared to the Fringe 2011 festival, the number of theatrical performances, musicals, performances of dance groups, exhibitions increased by 6%, in total there were 2695 events. The festival was held from 3 to 27 August and during these three weeks viewers could watch 42,000 events at 279 venues. Tickets for performances could be purchased not only in Edinburgh, but in the neighboring city - Glasgow.
For the first time, artists of the oral genre appeared on the stages of Edinburgh, they presented dramatic readings, poetry performances, improvised reporting and other formats. As usual, popular genres were cabaret, comedy and children's performances.
Many of the speeches were devoted to the Olympic theme. In addition to performances about the life of famous Olympians and quizzes in Pub quiz, viewers will remember a large themed party organized by the HMV Picturehouse burlesque club.
The World Shakespeare Festival was also reflected, more than 45 variations of the works of the famous British playwright were shown during the "Fringe". The 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's rule was also celebrated with a new play by the playwright Nicola Macauliffe "Tea with the Old Queen" and the program "Queen's Choice" performed by the La Clique Royale variety show.
At the international festival in Edinburgh Russia was represented by groups working in various genres. These are the St. Petersburg Hand Made Theater of Hand Plastics, and the artists of the La Pushkin theater, who showed the fairy tale "Peter and the Wolf", and the Russian-German "Do-Theater", and the DEREVO theater. The guests of the festival enjoyed the performances of the jazz quintet of Valery Ponomarev, the punk opera staged by the St. Petersburg Teatro Di Capua and many other worthy performances.
