|
Edinburgh Fringe Festival kicks off
2007-08-06
One of the world's largest arts events, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, began Sunday, with 2,000 shows and 31,000 performances expected over the course of the next three weeks. Known for its satirical and often eccentric, close-to-the-knuckle flavour, the Fringe is the unofficial, but now more well known, version of the Edinburgh International Festival, which runs from August 10 to September 2. The 61st Fringe kicked off on Sunday afternoon with a mile-long (1.6- kilometre) procession through the streets involving more than 3,000 people. Tens of thousands were expected to turn out to watch. Nearly 19,000 performers will be singing, dancing, acting or telling jokes in a record number of performances this year in 250 venues from churches and hotels to bars, pubs and apartment courtyards. Some 40 percent of the shows will be getting their first airing. In 2006, the festival sold 1,531 million tickets. High-profile shows include two musicals about former British prime minister Tony Blair ("Tony Blair -- The Musical" and "Tony! The Blair Musical") and a satirical look at holy war ("Jihad: The Musical"). The latter began performances on August 1 and has already raised more than a few eyebrows with its sideways look at Islamist extremism and the spiritual head of Al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden. One of the songs dedicated to the world's most wanted man is called "I wanna be like Osama". A petition has been launched on the British prime minister Gordon Brown's Downing Street website, calling on him to condemn the "tasteless portrayal of terrorism and its victims in 'Jihad The Musical'."
|  | | | Profile |
News33 | Gallery | Links | |
| |
|
|
| 
