Brian Ferguson: It was summertime at Summerhall for Made in Adelaide

Sam Underwood and his wife Valorie Curry. Picture: Mike Windle/Getty Images

There was an extra air of celebration of the links between the cities – both have programmed and fringe festivals – due to the 70th anniversary of Edinburgh’s events.

The Aussies brought along the Ukele Death Square, one of 28 acts performing this month, and even ordered an impressive birthday cake of Edinburgh Castle.

EIF director Fergus Linehan missed the gathering of luminaries for the cutting of the cake before the assembled guests began to devour it.

When Linehan, one of the busiest people in Edinburgh this month, did show up, there was just enough of the castle rock left intact to turn the cake around and stage a second picture. The crumbs on the knife were the only giveaway.

• The New Town Theatre has again proved to be the place for an up-close-and-personal festival experience with a big name.

Last year, it was Michelle Shocked holding court with a few dozen devotees huddled around her. Now actor Sam Underwood, the British actor who has starred in the likes of Dexter, Homeland and Fear The Walking Dead, is singing and pouring his heart out in the basement of the masonic lodge on George Street.

His show, Losing Days, chronicles his struggles with mental illness, the impact it has had on his marriage to fellow actor Valorie Curry, and how he only woke up to his condition when they were working together on the Fringe in 2015.

Underwood even credits Bryony Kimmings, whose show Fake It Till You Make It – about living with a partner with severe depression, which was a hit in 2015 – with saving his life.

• More up-close-and-personal experiences were on offer at Party Game, the Traverse’s big “immersive theatre” show.

Hanging bunting, rearranging chairs, dancing and handing out drinks are among the tasks audience members get roped into at Edinburgh College of Art’s Wee Red Bar.

Poker players also get the chance for a spot in the limelight with an impromptu game – won when I visited by actress Joanne Thomson, who is starring in another Traverse play, The Whip Hand.

She told her Twitter followers: “Only gal at the table as well. Read ’em and weep boys.”