Edinburgh Festivals Diary: Ukulele gift for banjo Keith and even more festivals

EIFF opens tonight with a premiere of Edinburgh-born Louis Paxton’s debut feature The Incomer, while EAF is to show off its new home on Constitution Street.

The more the merrier, bring it on.

Ukulele or banjo? Does it matter?

Congratulations to Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me but Banjos Saved My Life’s Keith Alessi, who performed his 100th Fringe show at Summerhall on Wednesday.

The show, which has been running since 2023, gives all ticket sales to Summerhall Arts to support independent theatre venues and artist development and has now raised £100,000. The venue has been running since 2011.

Tom Forster, Summerhall Arts Fringe programme manager, paid tribute to Alessi, whose show chronicles his journey from the corporate world to his pursuit of his passion for the banjo - while dealing with a cancer diagnosis.

“Only two artists in Summerhall have celebrated their 100th performance with us in our short history, and we’re delighted to welcome Keith to the centurion club,” he said, inexplicably handing Alessi a commemorative Summerhall ukulele.

Has he not read the name of the show?

Seal of approval from Granny

At the Traverse, one performance of a brand new play premiering in the theatre’s festival programme had a special guest.

Written by Eilidh Loan, Cathy, which stars Elaine C Smith, is a story based on Eilidh’s granny - and how she dealt with grief after losing her husband. On Friday, the real Cathy got to see the play for the first time.

Eilidh said: “Tonight was incredibly special because my granny, the real Cathy came to see her play. She wept, as she would, but laughed so much as well. And she said she’s incredibly proud of me. It’s been an absolutely amazing evening.”

Cathy said: "It was the way Elaine portrayed herself, and I could feel the loneliness of her. And the loneliness I felt. And it was hard, but it was so true and I loved it, I absolutely loved it, I laughed a lot. “It brought everything all back to me again, in a nice way. In a very, very nice way. It was like an honour to my husband. Because he was such a lovely, lovely man and I miss him dearly.”

Sold out

This year’s major Fringe controversy - Amanda Knox’s Cartwheel Fringe show at Teviot, which has been heavily criticised by the sister of Meredith Kercher - is now six performances down and still going. I saw the very first show on Friday night - you can read my thoughts on it here.

But Knox is apparently very excited - although she should perhaps not have been surprised - to have attracted so many audience members to her infamous show, asking one bemused performer standing next to the sold out board outside Teviot to snap her picture next to her name.

“This woman with a couple of kids came up to me and asked me if I could take her picture,” he said. “It was only when I was looking at her through the camera I realised it was Amanda Knox.”