Edinburgh Festival Bulletin, 3 August 2024
Welcome to The Scotsman’s Edinburgh Festival bulletin for Saturday 3 August – your guide to what's happening at the world's biggest arts event.
The Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe both kicked off yesterday, and already we have some early reviews to share with you. In terms of comedy, Kanan Gill, Pierre Novellie and Andrew Clover are all sounding like hot tickets this year, as are Jin Hao Li and Tom Ballard. Meanwhile, our critic Jim Gilchrist was at the special Edinburgh International Festival preview event on Thursday night featuring Braebach – you can read all about it here – and our review of the EIF's opening night event, Where to Begin, should be dropping onto the Edinburgh Festivals section of the website this morning. In the meantime, you can read our arts correspondent Brian Ferguson's first-look piece here.
Also on the site today, you'll find a huge array of preview coverage. Opera lovers can read director Andreas Homoki talking about his time-travelling Carmen, opening at EIF tomorrow (sample quote: "any attempt to approach Carmen realistically must fail"); our comedy critic Kate Copstick meets the Fringe comedians who are embracing old age; and theatre fans can take their pick from Miriam Margolyes chatting about Dickens, and Baby Reindeer and Fleabag producer Francesca Moody discussing the various shows she's bringing to this year's Fringe.
That's really just the tip of the iceberg though – for full immersion in The Scotsman Festival experience check out today's beautifully produced Festival supplement in the print edition of the paper, or explore the Edinburgh Festivals section of the website.
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Have a great weekend – and here are our Festival Picks of the Day for Saturday 3 August.
FESTIVAL PICKS OF THE DAY, SATURDAY 3 AUGUST
The Outrun As far as anyone knows, the Edinburgh festivals have never experienced something quite like this before. A few days after the theatre adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s memoir The Outrun premieres at the International Festival, a separate film adaptation, starring Saoirse Ronan, will premiere at the Film Festival. Meanwhile, Amy Liptrot is doing two events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, one on 18 August with playwright Stef Smith who adapted her book for the stage, and one on 13 August with authors Jen Hadfield and Roseanne Watt. Since Film Festival events are listed on the Fringe website this year too, technically Liptrot is in FOUR separate festivals this August, with the same book. A few prominent Scottish writers have managed two or even three festivals simultaneously in the past but this is a new record surely? Anyway, all these events are worth seeing, accompanied by some form of Liptrot Bingo. Church Hill Theatre, 8pm, until 24 August, with 3pm performances on some dates, www.eif.co.uk
Please Right Back Some of us are old enough to remember 1927 as a plucky young Fringe company paying inventive tribute to silent movies in a small, cave-like space at Underbelly. Now regulars at the International Festival, they’re back this year with a fantastical journey about an absent father. The Studio, 7pm, until 11 August, with 2pm performances on 5,7,10 and 11 August, www.eif.co.uk
Femmergy at the Fringe! Summerhall’s music programme this year consists of club nights with a focus on platforming queer voices, beginning tonight with "an intersectional space to celebrate femme joy and art and have a good boogie". Summerhall Dissection Room, 11pm, www.summerhall.co.uk