Why The Scotsman is proud to hand out its Fringe First awards
Scotland is blessed to play host to the world’s biggest arts festival
Established by The Scotsman in 1973, the Fringe First awards are a celebration of its best new writing. Today six more shows will be recognised, joining the winners from the first and second weeks.
Among the new winners, the National Theatre of Scotland’s One Hundred Voices is just one example of the sort of productions that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe does best, with an element of live theatre created by the audience themselves as they make their way through a “guided immersive experience”.
The disruption caused by the closure of Princes Street and dire warnings about rising costs for both performers and visitors – not least because of the city council’s introduction of the tourist tax – threatened to cast a shadow over this year’s event.
However, despite those problems, the Fringe yet again demonstrated what a wonderful, thought-provoking and truly special extravaganza of human creativity it really is.
While some appear to forget, we are blessed to have the world’s biggest arts festival in this country. Its contribution to life in Scotland, and particularly Edinburgh, is almost beyond measure. We must always cherish it.
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