Festival Fringe
How do we make an impression?
by Brian Radcliffe
Suitable for Key Stage 4/5
Aims
To explore what it might be like to stand out from the crowd.
Preparation and materials
- Optional: you may wish to explore the programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival and identify some personal highlights. Information is available at: https://www.eif.co.uk/
Assembly
- Ask the students, ‘Have any of you ever visited the Edinburgh Festival?’
Listen to a range of responses, eliciting reactions, experiences, likes and dislikes. - The 2023 Edinburgh International Festival is packed with events that celebrate excellence. Orchestras, singers, dancers and actors from all over the world perform in a variety of styles from 4 to 27 August. Their work is inspired by this year’s key themes: community over chaos, hope in the face of adversity and a perspective that’s not one’s own.
Galleries, museums and various other festivals that run in Edinburgh at the same time - including the International Book Festival, the Foodies Festival and the International Film Festival - add to this rich tapestry of twenty-first-century culture. - Yet there is another element that can easily overwhelm the official festival. It’s the anarchic, spontaneous and wildly engaging series of events that’s known as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Performances take place wherever there is a space. This may be a redundant church, an empty shop, a house, a park or the street itself. Musicians, comedians, jugglers, artists and living statues vie with each other to grab the attention of passers-by.
These performers spend their summer in an uncertain way. They live off their savings, sleep on friends’ floors and perform in tiny venues. But why? There are many reasons. - Some performers are professionals who have a new show to launch. If they interest one of the many theatrical agents who scour the Fringe productions, they may be offered a contract to take their show to a regional theatre, or even a London one.
- Among the performers, there are also talented amateurs, students or the cream of the local pub scene. Their intention is simply to be noticed. Maybe an agent will see their potential and offer to set up gigs.
- There are competitions too, particularly among stand-up comedians. The Edinburgh Comedy Awards have been the springboard for many of today’s top acts. Jack Dee, Bridget Christie, Tim Minchin and Sarah Millican are just four whose career began with success on the Fringe.
- In addition to the professional performers and the talented amateurs, there are those who simply want the experience. Rather than going to a music festival, camping in France or sharing a cheap holiday in Greece, some people prefer to lose themselves in the festival experience. They have little talent, but who cares? It’s just a way to stand out from the crowd.
Time for reflection
Ask the students the following questions.
- Do we want to stand out from the crowd?
- Just for a moment, would we like to create an impression, something to be remembered for?
Perhaps we have ambitions for our life and we’ve already begun to ascend the ladder of success. We might be like the professionals or the talented amateurs, hoping that, in a school production, a sports match or a community initiative, we’ll be spotted by someone who can open doors for us.
Maybe we’re trying to stand out in competition against our peers. Success in exams and tests is important to us, and we’re trying to show that we excel in mental agility.
Alternatively, maybe we’d just love to experience being the centre of attention, even if only briefly.
Being the centre of attention is a mixed experience. Those who are watching can give a positive or negative response. For many of us, that risk is what makes us stay in the background; we don’t want the embarrassment of appearing a failure.
However, that also means that we never give ourselves the possibility of taking the applause. There is a quotation often misattributed to Andy Warhol: ‘We’re all famous for 15 minutes.’ Maybe some of us need to seize the moment when it arrives.
Song/music
‘Simply the best’ by Tina Turner, available at: https://youtu.be/TAIBL5fRh4c (4.06 minutes long)
