What will the city be like in August without the clamouring crowds?
Will we still be under lockdown or will we residents be able to reclaim our city in some fashion (while perhaps observing social distancing/wearing masks)?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
Edinburgh without the Festival
(66 posts)-
Posted 4 years ago #
-
If this is somehow resolved before August then I'd expect some kind of impromptu fringe to self organise.
Posted 4 years ago # -
"If this is somehow resolved before August"
In what way resolved? No vaccine for at least a year, if ever. Global tourism effectively dead at the moment, may take years to recover, if at all. Social distancing measures may be required for up to a year, possibly on/off, unpredictable. Economy already in nose dive, people losing jobs, businesses closing.
Seems to me that Edinburgh will be a very different place in a year's time. As will the rest of the world.
Posted 4 years ago # -
In what way resolved?
If the govt relaxes the restrictions to levels prior to the full lock down then performers will travel to
meccaEdinburgh, if the pubs are allowed to open people will go to them especially if we've been cooped up for 4 months. If these things happen then we will see the fringe even if its not THE Fringe as it has become.Posted 4 years ago # -
to be out and about you'll need the govt approved immunity passport status app on yer smartphone
which is a pain as i do not possess a smartphone, being ever loyal to the anonymous old school burner with three week battery
Posted 4 years ago # -
@bax, indeed. UK government looking at tracking tech.
Posted 4 years ago # -
He said those affected who did not own a smartphone could borrow one with the software pre-installed, for a fortnight.
I don't know how to work one.
Posted 4 years ago # -
I have a hand me down iPhone 5 with no contract I use for Whatsapp. Will that do?
Posted 4 years ago # -
UM. Yes. I am sure no government, especially not the Russian government, would misuse this power in any way.
ETA: Germany doesn't even allow Streetview so I have a bit more faith they might actually scrub all the data at the end of the period specified.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@ubhurt, don't worry we'll have our own Brexity app.
---
The move coincides with a separate initiative to help European health authorities create virus-tracing apps that communicate with each other. This could help relax border restrictions.
Germany is expected to announce its own app that ties into the scheme shortly.
NHSX, which is working on similar for the UK, has been in communication with those running the project but has yet to commit to interoperability.---
Posted 4 years ago # -
Perhaps the Recovered can be injected with bioluminescent jellyfish extract so that they fluoresce under the special lights the lockdown enforcement squads will carry.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@crow
A shonky Brexity app that only works half the time?
Posted 4 years ago # -
@wingpig I'm a fan of human bioluminescence Just Because.
Posted 4 years ago # -
areas not frequented by the lockdown enforcement squads would become known as 'black light districts'
Posted 4 years ago # -
Surely August in Edinburgh without the fringe would just be July in Edinburgh but with slightly less daylight?
Not sure what reclaiming could or would mean
Posted 4 years ago # -
September in Edinburgh my favourite time
Posted 4 years ago # -
"Perhaps the Recovered can be injected with bioluminescent jellyfish extract..."
Or pressure injection of a pellet with RFID tag, biometric monitoring, etc. Like in the science fiction movies.
"Surely August in Edinburgh without the fringe would just be July in Edinburgh but with slightly less daylight?"
Minus the mass tourism though. And the start of the Fringe. And the Art Festival. Jazz Festival. Carnival. Etc.
In other words, like August in a normal European city that isn't based around a tourist economy. Quiet, most folk on holiday, tumbleweed in the streets... (That last bit was artistic licence).
"September in Edinburgh my favourite time"
Maybe only because of the contrast with overcrowded, hectic August? If that contrast is no longer there?
Posted 4 years ago # -
"A shonky Brexity app that only works half the time?"
And goes into hiding at the first hint of user dissatisfaction...
Posted 4 years ago # -
It's too crowded anyway when festival is on
Posted 4 years ago # -
In other words, like August in a normal European city that isn't based around a tourist economy.
Unless the lockdown isn't relaxed in which case it won't matter a jot.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@steveo, certainly.
All the planning so far* seems to be around 3 months of lockdown.
We will be at a fortnight in a few days, so 10-12 weeks left?What happens after that is, of course dependent on circumstances, i.e. we don't know yet if we'll see stricter lockdown before 3 months, or some loosening of restrictions after that point.
Emergency powers in force for 2 years! Lockdown restrictions in Scotland subject to review every 3 weeks.
* - e.g. "peak in 10-14 weeks" (from early March, i.e. late May); furlough and self-employed income support schemes lasting c.3 months; mortgage/rent holidays of 3 months; etc.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Culture always comes up here. This week's guest is comedienne Janey Godley - she reckons a lot of the Fringe is pure 'rule 2'
Actually no serious swearing and intelligent discussion with Eamonn O'Neill and Stuart Cosgrove.
AVAILABLE NOW: this week's episode of #TalkMedia featuring comedian and author @JaneyGodley
@Detroit67Book, @EamonnONeill and Janey discuss the growth of #online communities, media reactions to the fallout from the #SalmondTrial, and online trolls.
Links below. https://t.co/9tEj4CHsnQ
Posted 4 years ago # -
I have to say I had a slight lift of heart of everything I am indifferent to being cancelled - Olympics, Wimbledon, the whole lot. That includes the Edinburgh Fringe.
My enjoyment of the Fringe is of the more low-key event in the 80s, seeing clever, inspired theatre productions in uncomfortable church halls, some that I remember still today. Maybe that's just age, thinking everything is going to the dogs. But I detest the overblown Utterbully event it is today, and why so many rule 2 comedians?
I used to scorn the Edinburgh attitude of moaning about it, until I started to moan about it.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@rosie whilst we have veered towards curmudgeonly to a degree it is also true that the fringe has commercialized and homogenized as it has broadened its appeal.
My favourite fringe memory was some Irish lads doing Flann O’Brien’s Third Policeman in restalrig church. The walk down on a summers night, a new part of edinburgh with a certain edge. The show also involved a free pint of The Growler. Think was three quid in total.
I became rather a heckler of inevitable stand up patter and amazed at people laughing raucously at nothing. So I stopped going to them. They all now run to 50 mins for your 20 quid when you used to get more rambling shows or mixture of stuff.
I rather like the olympics myself but Wimbledon i am not that bothered. Like bjorn borg. Can’t be bothered with strawberries and champers stuff.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@gembo - I remember some shows eg a one woman show about Edna St Vincent Millay which I attended twice - as did a Sunday Times critic. I managed one year to blag a gig reviewing for Radio Forth so got into a lot of shows free - I was doing 3-4 a day until collapsed with festival fatigue and had to go to bed for a couple of days.
I remember an early festival with a friend to stay. We were in proper festival mood. " 3 hours to the next show" "Oh, what can we see." (Quite flick through the daily festival sheet. "There's a play about Virginia Woolf in Newington". (Set out with venue maps. Paid our £1.)
Now that's a memory of being young and energetic and enthusiastic, but we weren't earning much and could afford to do that.
Also that suddenly the streets were full of good-looking people dressed in striking clothes, who were graceful and fit as they were dancers and/or actors. The human beauty rate in Edinburgh climbed exponentially. And far fewer tourists the rest of the year, so it was a sudden influx.
Re the broadening of appeal - yes the comedians are now corporate entertainment.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Comedy has been part of the Fringe since at least the 1950s, but used to be more revues by the Cambridge Footlights set. Then in 1980s the Perrier Award and stand-up / alternative comedy became the big thing.
I agree though joy of the Fringe is going to see some obscure theatre company in a church hall, or an avant-garde performance piece. Demarco used to bring lots of performers over from Eastern Europe (as then was) - saw some unclassifiable stuff in his space on Blackfriars Street back in the day (former Italian Cultural Institute, semi-derelict if I recall).
Remember watching Borg, McEnroe, Connors, Wade, Navratilova, King hitting balls across court on telly in the 1970s. Long hot summers, orange and lemon barley water to cool down. Never really bothered with Wimbledon since. Watch some of the Olympics but it's only every four years. Getting a bit like that with football now too - wait for the World Cup on the box.
Edinburgh will be a lot quieter this summer, maybe too quiet. Opportunities for walking and cycling though, as long as everyone else is not doing it at the same time.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Demarco was always worth a shiuftie. The Balkan troupe with the whips and fire in old college a high point of his later period.
He is still alive [google] 90 this July 9th - will give him. WEE TOAST That evening Tricky Ricky
Posted 4 years ago # -
Demarco is behind Summerhall and a recent pure Fringe event I saw there were people pushing polystyrene beads through architectural models, and this being projected on a screen. It was superb - strikingly effective and unclassifiable.
Yes, here's to Demarco, a National Treasure.
Posted 4 years ago # -
In a sense Summerhall has kept alive the true Fringe spirit and open all year round. Run by a long time associate of Demarco, his archive is there (or was until recently). Brings all the art forms together including visual art. Like the Traverse of old before it moved into the basement of corporate building in the 1990s.
I'll second that toast in July. Met him in his gallery on Blackfriars Street, always a wheeler-dealer...
Posted 4 years ago # -
Summerhall will be flats ten years after it opened. Associate of tricky Ricky also wheeler dealer
Posted 4 years ago #
Reply »
You must log in to post.
posts
