King for a night

COMPERE Tom Freeman is King for a day - or at least the night - as he impersonates Elvis at the Edinburgh People’s Festival. The event at the Jack Kane Centre, held on Saturday, was a bid to revive the "original" spirit of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The new festival is designed to be a tribute to Hamish Henderson, the celebrated Scots writer, singer and historian who died earlier this year at his city home.

Organisers claimed the Edinburgh People’s Festival provided an alternative to the "elitism" and "corporate domination" of the modern-day Fringe.

Mr Henderson was a key figure in the formation of the original Edinburgh People’s Festival, which was held from 1951 to 1954. It was organised in the city by activists who felt the official Edinburgh International Festival had "failed the people".