Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2007
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest festival and has now been running for over 60 years. You can catch this year's Fringe from 5 to 27 August with performances at over 250 venues around Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe was born in 1947 when 8 groups turned up to the Edinburgh International Festival uninvited. With no performance space allocated, instead of going home, the acts set up their own venues and performed alongside the main festival. The additional festival activity gave the Fringe its title, but it quickly grew to become the main event.
From the very beginning the Fringe has maintained an open access policy. This means that performers take part without artistic vetting or selection - a policy that has led to the amazing growth, overall success, and the fantastic 'spirit of the Fringe'.
Last year the Fringe sold over 1.5 million tickets smashing all arts festival records, and with 31,000 performances lined up for this year, 2007 is set to break even more records. And don't worry if you're on a tighter budget, as well as the paid-for shows you'll find over 300 performances that are absolutely free.
Big names to have appeared at the Fringe over the years include Robin Williams, Hugh Grant, Rachel Weisz, Emma Thompson, Jude Law, Christian Slater and many many more. The Fringe is a great place to see your favourite stars and also the stars of tomorrow - this year 40% of the shows are world premières.
For a full listing of performances and information on tickets and prices, visit Edinburgh Festival Fringe.