Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for several simultaneous arts and cultural festivals which take place from late July to early September each year in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The festival was first held in 1947, when 8 theatre companies 'gatecrashed' the event by organising their own. Over time this grew into the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Fringe is now a much bigger event in itself than the main Edinburgh Festival, in 2007 over 2,000 different acts are performing

One of them is Ricky Gervais, who is performing his standup show, Fame at Edinburgh castle as part of the Fringe Festival. The two festivals have always remained separate, each organising their own events and acts.