The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest arts festival in the world, with nearly 3,500 shows. This year, Playbill is in Edinburgh for the entire month in August for the festival and we’re taking you with us. Follow along as we cover every single aspect of the Fringe, aka our real-life Brigadoon!
A man was grabbing his tote bag amidst the crowd that filled Summerhall's courtyard. Emblazoned on the side was the emblem for Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder, which was a hit at last year's Fringe and returns this year with an expanded time slot, a U.K. tour in its pocket, and is already selling out performances.
There's a second man standing nearby who noticed the tote. He called over to the man who had slung it over his shoulder, "I love your bag. Are you a fan of the show?"
First man: "I'm actually in it. I'm one of the actors."
There's a woman standing next to the second man who laughed. "Hi, it's lovely to meet you," she said. "I'm one of your associate producers." So goes The List party every year.
The List party is an industry-only event which took place August 3 at Summerhall ahead of the official opening of the Fringe festival. It is hosted by The List, a U.K. arts publication. It is the biggest party of the Fringe and Playbill was in attendance.
Actors, playwrights, directors, producers, critics, journalists, and more convene every year at the event where they bump into old friends from previous years and make new ones in a whirlwind celebration. And often times, you'll spot a celebrity or two that's performing at the Fringe or coming out to see some shows—like Scottish actor Alan Cumming.
This year's party was a six-hour long affair that included food, drinks, silent discos, flamenco dancers, acrobats, face painting, and more in a carnival-esque atmosphere that captures the frenetic energy Edinburgh as a whole takes on during the month.
But one of the things that's truly fun about the event is the series of show previews taking place across several of Summerhall's spaces throughout the evening. With 10-15 minute time slots, artists perform a section of their Fringe offering in the hopes of attracting critics and entertainment industry professionals into seeing the full show. In Edinburgh, positive reviews and recommendations can generate the kind of buzz that can transform a show into becoming a hit. Take a look below to see one of the signs of the rotating schedule below.
Now, if you're wondering why there were preview performances being held in a space called the Dissection Room, a little history on Summerhall. It is located in the Edinburgh's historic Old Town, which lies at the heart of Scotland's capital. (Old Town is so called because the cobblestoned streets here mostly run exactly where they have since the medieval era, and the buildings mostly date back about 500 years.)
Summerhall is an arts and events complex which was home to the Royal Dick Veterinary College from 1916 to 2011. As such, rooms like the anatomy lecture theatre with its curved, tiered seating and a vaulted skylight, the old laboratory, the dissection room, and a former women’s locker room now host theatrical presentations rather than scientific and academic ones.
And at this historic venues, there was theatre to be found in every nook and cranny of the space. If you wander up the main staircase into the Main Hall, you may be treated to an all-female team of acrobats called Yuck Circus. Go up one of the side staircases, past the people in line to get their faces painted, you might encounter the girl group of Flat & Curves: Divadom performing an operatic aria about porn.
Or in the courtyard, you may have to press up against a stranger in order to make room for the audience of Silent Disco Dance Tour, who are dancing in a conga line while wearing bright headphones.
The party went until the early hours of 3 AM, at which time the revelers filed out—a little hoarse, a little tired, but also energized. Because the first Fringe shows began at 10 AM the next day.
Go inside The List party below.
Alan Cumming attends The List party
Silent disco at The List party
