Edinburgh 2008

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Edinburgh Festival

The Edinburgh Festival is not a single Festival as such; the Festival is a collective term for all the discrete festivals which take place in Edinburgh from late July through to early September.

The 'Edinburgh International Festival', which started in 1947, is a festival of performing arts that takes place over three weeks from around the middle of August. The International Festival brings top class performers of opera, theatre, music (especially classical music) and dance from around the world to perform.

The 'Edinburgh Festival Fringe', started as an offshoot of the International Festival and has since grown to be the world's largest arts festival. The 2006 Fringe featured 28,014 performances of 1,867 shows in 261 venues. Theatre made up 32% of the programme, followed by Comedy (27%) then Music (21%). Musicals, Children’s Shows, Dance & Physical Theatre, Exhibitions and Events each provided around 4% of the programme.

Other roughly concurrent festivals in Edinburgh include the 'Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival', 'Edinburgh International Book Festival', the 'Edinburgh People's Festival' and the 'Edinburgh Art Festival'.

Plus there is the ever-popular (and audible to other festival-goers) 'Edinburgh Military Tattoo' every evening on the Castle Esplanade during August.

Edinburgh International Festival
http://www.eif.co.uk/

Edinburgh Festival Fringe
http://www.edfringe.com/

Edinburgh Military Tattoo
http://www.edintattoo.co.uk/

Edinburgh International Book Festival
http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/