EDINBURGH FESTIVAL information j - 1 Tickets & Information
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
The original and most prestigious Edinburgh Festival, at which leading international performers of music, opera, theatre and dance are invited to perform at the city's major venues. The International Festival runs Sun 10
Sat 30 August.
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL BOX OFFICE Tickets for all International Festival events can be bought from the Festival Box Office, 21 Market Street, Edinburgh, 0131 473 2000. Open Mon—Sat 9am-7pm; Sun 10am—5pm. The following venues also sell tickets for all International Festival events: King's Theatre Leven Street,
0131 220 4349;
Queen's Hall Clerk Street,
0131668 2019;
Usher Hall Lothian Road, 01312281155.
Any tickets unsold on the day of the performance are available on the door one hour before curtain up. Half-price tickets for some performances are sold — SUbJQCi to availability — from 1pm on the day of performance, at the Festival Box Office, 21 Market Street, 0131 473 2000. Limited to two tickets per customer.
Day seats for all opera performances and all shows at the Gateway Theatre are sold for £5 (subject to availability) on the day of the performance, at the main International Festival box office.
BANK OF SCOTLAND FIREWORKS CONCERT Thu 28 Aug, 10.30pm. This annual spectacular, at the Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens, is one of the highlights of the Festival’s final week. This year, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra performs Handel, Shostakovich, Johann Strauss, Sibelius and Chabrier, while spectacular fireworks fill the sky and cascade down the Castle rock. There is only one chance left to buy tickets givrng admission to Princes Street Gardens. From 10am on Sun 24 Aug, a limited number of tickets will be offered for sale at the main International Festival box office (maleUITl four tickets per person). They are expected to sell out quickly, but disappointed punters can join the throng on and around Princes Street to Jostle for the best Views.
FESTIVAL FRINGE
Also 50 years old, the Fringe is open to any performer from anywhere in the world who can find a venue, and is consequently the biggest and most varied arts festival in the world. From early morning until late at night, somebody somewhere wants to entertain you. Whether the venue is a theatre, a church hall or a street corner, every art-form known to man is on offer at almost 200 venues around the city. Theatre, dance, comedy, music, visual art and a few other genres defying categorisation are all on offer. The Fringe runs officially Sun 10—Sat 30 Aug, but many shows begin earlier, during 'week zero'.
FRINGE BOX OFFICE
Tickets for all shows in the Fringe are available from the Fringe Office, 180 High Street, Edinburgh, 0131 226 5138. Open for bookings in person daily 10am—7pm; or by phone 9am—9pm.
Tickets for Fringe events are also available in person from:
Scottish Gas Mobile Information Centre Princes Street Gardens, by The Mound. Open from Sun 10 Aug, daily 10am—5.30pm.
Fringe Club TeViot Row, Bristo Square. Open from Fri 8 Au , daily 10am—7pm. James Thin Bookse Iers 53—59 South Bridge. Open Mon—Sat 10am-7pm; Sun 11am-5pm.
Waterstone's Booksellers 83 George Street. Open Mon~Sat 10am—7pm; Sun 11am-7pm.
FRINGE VENUES
The Fringe as a whole is not selectiver programmed, but several venues control and programme two or more performance spaces and publish their own brochures (the Assembly Rooms, the Gilded Balloon and the Pleasance share a single brochure) and also oper- ate box offices for their own shows: Assembly Rooms 54 George Street, 0131 226 2428. Open daily 10.30am—midnight. Tickets for Gilded Balloon events are also sold here. Fringe Club Teviot Row, Bristo Square, 0131 650 4673/226 5138. Open daily 7pm—late.
Gilded Balloon 233-235 Cowgate, 0131226 2151. Open daily 10am--
12.30am. Tickets for Assembly Rooms
events are also sold here.
Gilded Balloon ll People’s Palace, Old Fishmarket Close, 0131 226 2151. Tickets sold at main Gilded Balloon box office and Assembly Rooms.
Hill Street Theatre 19 Hill Street, 0131 226 6522. Open daily noon—12.30am (10—16 Aug), 9.30am~-11pm(18—30 Aug).
Pleasance 60 The Pleasance, 0131 556 6550. Open daily 10.30am—130am Open for telephone bookings daily 9am--10pm
Queen's Hall Clerk Street, 0131 668 2019, Open daily 10~~~5pm (until 10 Aug); Mon-Sat 10ame10prn; Sun noon—8.30pm (10—30 Aug).
Famous Grouse House 5 Chambers Street, 0131 220 5606. Open from 8 Aug daily 9.308m—12.1 5am.
Theatre Workshop 34 Hamilton Place, 0131 226 5425. Open Mon-Sat 9.30am—11pm; Sun 10am—10pm. Traverse Theatre Cambridge Street, 0131 228 1404. Open Mon loam—8pm, Tue—Sun 10am—10pm (7-1 7 Aug), Mon 10am—8pm; Tue—Sun 10am-11pm (18-30 Aug).
All Fringe venues also sell tickets for
4 TIIE LIST 7-13 Aug 1997
their own shows shortly before performances begin.
THE FRINGE CLUB
operates as a venue during the da but from 9.30pm it becomes a kind 0 epicentre or the world's largest arts festival, with live music, club nights, comedy, cabaret, cheap food and -— of course - four bars, which stay open until 3am. Membership costs £5 per day, or £25 for the season (£8 for performers), available from the Fringe Office or the Fringe Club.
EVENING NEWS FESTIVAL CAVALCADE is a huge parade on Sun 10 August, which kicks off in Waterloo Place at 2.15pm, jOtlTllOYS west along Princes Street and ends up in the Grassmarket. If you want to find a good place to watch from, turn up early — the streets Will be mobbed.
FLUX This musical festival Within the Fringe is a new initiative to improve the quality and variety of contemporary new lTlUSIt on offer during the Festival. Organised by London’s Barbican and South Bank Centre under the auspices of the Fringe, it runs Tue 12- Sat 31 Aug at the laffa Cake, 28 King's Stables Road, between the Grass- rnarket and Lothian Road. AlongSide gigs by some of the UK’s leading bands
3 and musicians, there's a club every 5 night, Thu Sun, midnight-5am.
Tickets for Flux events are available
’ from the Jaffa Cake, or by telephone on 0131 557 6969.
In Edinburgh you can see La Cubana at the International Festival . . .
EDINBURGH MELA An annual festival of rnulti-cultural arts again Within the Fringe. This year, the Mela incorporates a celebration of the founding of Pakistan which, at 50, is the same age as the Festival. Based at Meadowbank Sports Centre, the two— day event takes plat e on Sat 16 & Sun 17 Aug, and features a broad range of film, music, theatre and dance. Tickets and information 0131 668 4100 FRINGE SUNDAY
A gathering of 150,000 fun-seekers in Holyrood Park Taking place on Sun 17 August, 11am-5pm, it's the biggest free show in the Festival, Fire-eaters, Jugglers, buskers, pipe-bands, comedians, musicians and theatre groups gather in what seems like their thousands to entertain the multitude (and encourage people to see their shows). Not to be missed.