FESTIVAL PREVIEW
Mon—Sat 7am—8pm. Sun 8.30am—6.30pm. Weekly season ticket £5.50. Night buses run to most parts of the city after 10pm. Eastern Scottish Buses (Green) Bus Station, St Andrew Square. 556 8464.
I Cycle Hire Central Cycle Hire. 13 Lochrin Place. Tollcross. 228 6333. A wide range of bikes starting at £4 perday. Maps and leaflets also available.
I Taxis Taxi ranks: Waverley Station; Caledonian Hotel. West End. Central Radio Cabs 229 2468. Fifty pence call-out charge. but 24-hour service. Other numbers in Yellow Pages.
ACCOMMODATION
I Tourist Information and Accommodation Desk Waverley Market. They‘ll help you with all budgets here. though Edinburgh is usually very busy during the Festival.
Hostels
I Scottish Youth Hostels Association Office: Warrender Park Road. 229 8660 for information.
I SYHA Hostel 17 Eglinton Crescent. 337 1120. 216 beds. £4.25 per night forover 21s. Open 7—] lam and 2pm~-2am.
I SYHA Hostel 7 Bruntsfield Crescent.447 2994. 170 beds. £4.25 per night forover 21s. ()pen 7—] lam and 2pm—2am.
I Independent Hostel Blackfriars Street. 557 3984. £5. Open all day. ()pento non-members. but always very busy during Festival time.
Caravan Parks and Campsites
I Little France Caravan Park Old Dalkeith Road. 664 4742. Caravans. tents. touring caravans. £6 per night for two people with either caravan or tent. Open 8am—9pm. I Mortonhall Park Caravan Site F rogston Road East. 664 1533. Caravans andtents £7.50 per night with supplements for electrics and awnings. Open 8am-9pm. I Kirkton Farm Campsite Ratho. 333 4511. Caravans £2.50. tents £2 per night. Bus 37 from St Andrew Square bus station.
I Fordel Caravan Site Lauder Road. Dalkcith (Off A68) 663 3046. Caravans £5; tents £4.
24-HOUR GARAGES
I Abbeymount Filling Station 11 Montrose Terrace. 661 5593.
I Edinburgh Service Station (iv-a East London Street. 556 5284.
I Links Service Station Barclay Place. 229 9859.
I Texaco Service Station 187 Slatcford Road. 443 4353.
POLICE STATION
I Lothian and Borders H0 relies Avenue. 311 3131. Emergency dial 999 (free) and ask for service you require —< Fire Brigade. Ambulance or Police.
CASUALTY AND EMERGENCY SERVICES
I Royal Inllrmary at Edinburgh (24 hours) 1 Lauriston Place. 229 2477. and Western General Hospital Crewc Road South. 332 2525.
LEFT LUGGAGE
I Waverley Station Waverley Bridge. Seven days. Charge depends on size of luggage. but usually around £1 .
Ordeal by fire
Kennedy Wilson looks at the Festival’s annual
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There is one occasion during the Festival which every late night production dreads. This is when box office returns take a dive no matter how rave the reviews. Those putting on a show on Thursday 24 August between 10pm and midnight might as well hang out the ‘cancelled’ sign. This is the night of the Glenlivet Fireworks Concert which takes place at 10.45pm at the Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens.
Handel composed his Royal Fireworks suite in 1749 for King George II, and every year the Scottish Chamber Orchestra trots it out to the aural and visual accompaniment of real fireworks released from the castle battlements.
For many people, including residents who never see a single show or exhibition. this is the high point of the Festival. It’s also free.
You can pay for a seat at the bandstand, you may even have gained a pass to the Gardens where the music is relayed through somewhat inferior loudspeakers but, suffice to say, ifyou haven’t got tickets by now you never will.
Le toute Edinburgh stands along Princes Street, the Mound or on Calton Hill (be sure to stand clear of the North British tower or you’ll miss the ‘waterfall‘, a stunning cascade of light which tumbles down the Castle Rock).
Handel‘s Fireworks is joined this year with his Zadok the Priest and Elgar‘s Pomp and Circumstance. Radio Forth (Radio Froth to locals) broadcasts the whole affair interspersed with maddening deejay prattle. The music is always safe and suitably pompous (in 1986 Fireworks conductor Max Davies‘ own composition Orkney Wedding and Sunrise was dropped because it was thought too modern).
But the pyrotechnics are the thing everyone enjoys — tremendous bangs
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and breathtaking. multicoloured explosions (remember to keep pets and those with a low boredom threshold tightly tucked up).
The Fireworks Concert has changed since the early days when there was plenty of space to lay a blanket on the ground and share a bottle ofvino. These days it‘s a bit of an ordeal with standing room only. pickpockets and a nightmarish exodus of biblical proportions when it's all over.
Shore Space
Alastair Mabbott sinks in it up to his neck when the Fringe reaches Portobello.
One of the most popular events during the Festival. and one of the best family outings. is actually one of the least-known outside Edinburgh itself; The Fringe at the Seaside. taking place at Portobello Promenade on Saturday 19.
Last year 50.000 people came to Portobello for it. and in 1989 the public can stroll amidst 42 events and sideshows, 50 market stalls, around a dozen bands, bouncy castles, puppets. clowns, balloon sculptures, face painters, jugglers, fire-eaters, dodging unicyclist Buscar Willie and
the man-Sized Pictish Puppets on the way.
Sponsored mainly by Edinburgh District Council, who will be making a video of the event. one of the highlights will be an air sea rescue display. the only one during the Festival. involving South Oueensferry's lifeboat. Fisher Row coastguards and a helicopter rescue team which had to be talked out of the Ministry of Defence.
‘Basically. it involves three people being thrown into the sea and rescued.‘ says Sandra Graham. organiser. ‘You‘ve no idea the number of people who have volunteered for that. and 1 don‘t know why.’ The water will also play host to a demonstration by the Lifeguards Display Team. but not Portobello Round Table. who will settle for a less extreme form of soaking for charity.
A high proportion of the performers are local. Take. for example. eight year-old magician Calum McLeod. or the three dance
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companies. Spring Lothian Dance Company. Khoros Dance Theatre and Jenny (ieddes‘ Clog Dancers. As Sandra Crraham says. ‘We feel that Edinburgh groups tend to be pushed aside during the Festival‘. but some. like The London Fusion Orchestra and solo Indian dancer Bijayalaxmi Mohanty. hail from further afield.
Ecological concerns. as is so often the case nowadays. are high on the agenda. The sandcastle competition is sponsored by the Department of the Environment. Fly on the Wall Theatre (‘0 have a environmentally-aware show aimed at kids. and a large teepee is planned. to draw attention to the plight ofthe rain forest.
So wide is the range ofevents that there‘s even space for an act as unusual as Paul Carling's parachuting teddies. the Dare Bears. Fringe at the Seaside (Fringe) Portobello Promenade (Venue 127) 19 Aug. 1.30pm. Free.
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The List 18 — 24 August 1989 63