The historic and scenic city of Edinburgh, Scotland is famous for several wonderful attractions such as its castle, museums, theaters, galleries, gardens, zoo, monuments, palaces, and historic houses.
There are also several annual events in the old city with the most popular being the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
This yearly event attracts thousands of visitors to Edinburgh as they head into town to take in numerous performances and shows in a variety of genres.
These include music, dancing, buskers, satire, drama, children’s events and comedy etc. The festival takes place each August during the height of the summer weather and the attraction usually sets new attendance records year after year.
The 2012 edition of the Fringe Festival has a total of 2,695 different shows scheduled, which is an increase of 6% over 2011’s number. It’s also been reported that the festival expects to feature approximately 22,500 performers during the event.
Normally, the population of this beautiful Scottish city is about 450,000, but when the fringe Festival hits town it more than doubles to approximately a million.
In addition, the local economy also benefits greatly as the festival generates approximately 142 million British pounds ($218 million) each year during the event.
The 2012 edition of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival will take place between August 3rd and 27th and it will run in conjunction this year with other popular events such as the Edinburgh Book Festival, theInternational Festival, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, and television and jazz festivals.
Many of these popular events take place on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle in the center of the city.
Britain will definitely be a popular place with visitors this summer since London will be hosting the 2012Summer Olympic Games. The festivals in Edinburgh have actually been coordinating their events with the Olympic and Paralympic Games to maximize the number of visitors to Edinburgh.
In addition, some of the performances from the Fringe Festival will also take place at the London Arts Olympiad during the Summer Games.
According to many visitors to the event, the Fringe Festival is easily one of the best in the world and has grown greatly since it was first launched 66 years ago. The variety of programs certainly captures the attention of all types of people, no matter how old they are. The Fringe Festival is actually an offshoot of the city’s International Festival and it was first held in 1947, shortly after the Second World War.
We can’t forget that the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is also taking place in 2012 and the Fringe performances will include political satire and will also touch on Queen Elizabeth’s celebration of her 60 years on the throne.
