Shows to watch today: Edinburgh Festival Bulletin, 7 August - Elizabeth Llewellyn & Simon Lepper, Fred MacAulay, Pink Wednesday & more

First, here are today’s Picks of the Day...

Pink Wednesday After the buzz of the opening weekend, the Wednesday of the Edinburgh Fringe’s first full week – ie, today – tends to be a much slower day for ticket sales (so if your audiences suddenly dropped today, don’t worry, it’s not just you!). Each year, Fringe venue the Gilded Balloon does its best to turn what could be a downer into a day of celebration with £5 tickets on offer for numerous shows and a percentage of sales going to Waverley Care, the Scottish HIV and hepatitis charity. Participating shows include Jack Docherty in The Chief – No Apologies, Michelle Brasier, Joshua Bethania, Pop Off Michelangelo, Louise Atkinson, The Steamie, and I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical. Performers and staff are encouraged to dress in pink, and there will be fancy dress competitions and themed drinks throughout the day. Today only, see www.gildedballoon.co.uk for ticket offers. ​

Elizabeth Llewellyn and Simon Lepper The EIF’s Queen’s Hall series is such a long-established part of the festival programme that we are probably a little guilty of taking it for granted. So here’s a mid-week highlight: an intimate performance by one of Britain’s best singers and her duo partner, promising “a programme steeped in the sensuality of late Romanticism, with songs in five languages”. Queen’s Hall, 11am, www.eif.co.uk

Elizabeth Llewellyn

Fred MacAulay On a day of promising weather, why not escape the big city noise for the quieter atmosphere of Fringe by the Sea, running all this week in North Berwick, tonight including a “work in progress” by the veteran Scottish comedian and broadcaster Fred MacAulay. Today also offers a brass instrument workshop, an organic gin cocktail masterclass, and more. Lodge Grounds, North Berwick, 6pm, www.fringebythesea.com

And here’s a flavour of what you’ll find in the Edinburgh Festivals section of the website today...

This year, there are almost 1,600 comedy shows advertised on the Fringe website, up from 1,100 last year, and comedy now makes up some 39 per cent of the programme. Why do more and more hopefuls flock to Edinburgh every August, in spite of the rapidly rising costs and the enormous amount of competition? Edinburgh Comedy Awards director Nica Burns has a few ideas, and one of them is what she calls "the Baby Reindeer Effect". You can read our arts correspondent Brian Ferguson's interview with her here.

Another interview well worth checking out today: our classical music critic Ken Walton in conversation with director Roxana Haines, ahead of her forthcoming Scottish Opera production of Oedipus Rex as part of the Edinburgh International Festival. Does wrangling a 70-strong community choir, a 25-strong professional chorus, a lead cast of ten and an orchestra of 80 into the unconventional performance space of the National Museum of Scotland present certain logistical challenges? Absolutely. Will there be anything else quite like this production at any of this year's summer festivals? Absolutely not. You can read the full interview here.

Also in the Edinburgh Festivals section of scotsman.com today, look out for Del Amitri keyboardist Andy Alston on his new collaborative Fringe show, Broadside Ballads Live; all our latest EIF reviews, including Joyce McMillan on 1927's Please Right Back and Kelly Apter on Brazil's Grupo Corpo; plus, of course, all our latest Fringe reviews across theatre, comedy, dance and more.

That's not even 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 pay us a virtual visit at www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/edinburgh-festivals.

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