Another week, another list of Edinburgh shows to take the place of a proper review of the week. The first such lists came in the previous '10 weeks of summer' post, just here. Week two of the Fringe means the first full week of the International Festival (although from 2015 they will be realigned, with the EIF moving forward a week). I also went to Charlotte Square to see a Book Festival event – more on that below. So, this is what I went to see and do...Fringe Week 2, and Week 1 of the International Festival and Book Festival
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Is an arts admin degree for me?
- EFF: Miann
- EFF: Nick Helm's Two Night Stand in the Grand
- Edinburgh International Book Festival: David Reynolds: The Great War's Grand Legacy
- EFF: Alex Horne: Monsieur Butterfly
- EFF: Footprints
- EFF: Phill Jupitus is Porky the Poet in Juplicity (Free Fringe)
- Edinburgh International Festival: I AM
- EFF: The World Fringe Fair
- EIF: Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony
My attendance at the Book Festival event was part of a project we're running at Edinburgh Napier. Because of our links to World War I through the Craiglockhart campus we have set up a blog where we can cover some of the events they are running to mark the centenary of the Great War. The blog is here: http://blogs.napier.ac.uk/world-war-one/, with my write of David Reynolds here.I was also in a Fringe show! The first time in years. My friend Xela ran the 'arts admin' session at Fringe Central and asked me to be on the panel. There were four panel members and around a dozen in the audience, but I think we did a pretty good job of covering the subject in the time available. Xela heads up the Fringe University, among other things.Of the other shows, Nick Helm was raucous and went on late into the night. Alex Horne has since been nominated for the Comedy Award. Phill Jupitus was very open, very honest and very engaging in his poetry hour, which was a Free Fringe event. It's less easy to be enthusiastic about the EIF show 'I AM' I'm afraid, which was long, slow and not particularly uplifting – social media wasn't kind to them, though The Guardian tried to make sense of what they were seeking to achieve.Here's Nick and flag wavers, trying to hold the UK together: