Arts diary: King's Theatre finally re-opens and why festivals need trams chaos to be sorted now

All together now: “Oh yes it is...”

I’ve just been on a tour - the last of three in the past year and the only one which has not required me to don steel-capped boots and a hard hat - and I have to say, it’s looking lovely. More on that in Saturday’s paper.

Officially not launching until Graham Norton treads the newly-laid boards on Saturday, a series of “test events” have taken place over the past week, when audiences witnessed a series of somewhat stop-start shows, featuring fire drills and the like.

However, one audience member told me the planned evacuation trial had included the distribution of wristbands to allow guests re-entry - which were embedded with wild flower seeds to be planted as a reminder of the day the King’s reopened. Sweet.

The theatre has been shut for over three years while a major refurbishment takes place.

Upgrades as part of the £40 million, near-four year overhaul include extensive renovations to auditorium, bars and café, as well as new public spaces, a creative studio for community events, and a range of heritage displays and artefacts.

To coincide with the opening, the theatre has revealed the results of its “message in a bottle” campaign, which requested memories of the theatre, as well as hopes for the future, to be submitted to the theatre. The idea was inspired by the discovery of an actual message in a bottle at the theatre hidden by the original builders and uncovered during the building works.

Perhaps the most intriguing was one anonymous contribution from one theatre-goer who had a love of comic books mysteriously shared with late panto great Andy Gray.

“When I was younger, every time I came to the Panto I used to go early to see Andy Gray in his dressing room and would give him spiderman comics in return for some of his Batman comics,” the visitor revealed. “It's a memory I hold onto even more after his passing.”

Festivals tram chaos as pop-up venues pop up in new locations

Assembly Festival it has confirmed it is to relocate two external outdoor venues, Bijou and Front Room, after the fire which devastated the former Debenhams building has forced the festival-time pedestrianisation of George Street to be scrapped.

The venues, which are usually on George Street and hold the likes of renowned Fringe star Miss Frisky, are now to pop up in St Andrew Square - alongside a temporary bar and box office. Shows held indoors at Assembly Rooms on George Street will go ahead.

If one single Fringe venue is managing to relocate entire rooms - and 17 shows - to a new spot across the city, you’d think it wasn’t rocket science to pop a couple of trams on a lorry and do the same to allow the other half of the route to run from the north of Edinburgh to the city centre. Tram services between the city and Newhaven have been suspended for nearly three weeks since the blaze broke out.

Admittedly, the temporary venues had not yet been built, but the logistical planning which goes into the move is not that different.

Edinburgh Council has finally said it is very slowly considering moving some of its trams - which were reportedly all “asleep” in its west Edinburgh depot when the fire occurred, leaving in unable to operate even a limited service on the other side of Princes St - by road.

As my colleague reports here, this is to avoid waiting another few weeks, into a period when the city will be inundated with hundreds of thousands of visitors for the festivals. Yet they are still citing “logistical challenges”.

The Fringe officially starts on 7 August, though many shows are actually beginning before that. Meanwhile, performers generally arrive a week earlier, swelling the city population imminently.

Fringe performers are already worrying online about the impact that the transport chaos will have on this year’s festivals. Visitors are, quite understandably, reconsidering their plans to come to Edinburgh.

There isn’t much time left for the “active consideration” the council says it has undertaken, we need our trams back now.