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Style and Travel

Edinburgh rocks

Alistair Scott

Wednesday, 8th August 2007

Alistair Scott’s definitive guide to the world’s hottest festival city

Scotland’s capital has always been a much more introverted place than its larger near-neighbour, Glasgow. Things generally tend to happen behind closed doors in Edinburgh. But all that changes in the month of August, when this shy city declares itself en fête and welcomes the world, transforming itself into a magnificent 24-hour Euro-city where the party just goes on and on. For the next four weeks there is simply no more exciting place to be on the planet.

The origins of all the arts-(using the term in its very widest sense)-centred celebrations here lie in the foundation, way back in 1947, of the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF). Originally this was a straight-laced festival of the classical arts born out of a postwar sense of peace and pride.

The EIF has evolved considerably in the past 60 years but, more to the point, it has been joined by several roughly contemporaneous festivals, most notably the Fringe, but also those of Jazz, Film, Books and so on.

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