- published: 10 Sep 2015
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The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place each summer, mostly in August, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Though the festivals are put on by various organizations unrelated to each other, and so are officially separate events, they are regarded by many visitors as part of the same event; and together they form the largest annual cultural festival in the world. The Edinburgh Festival is member of the Global Cultural Districts Network.
The original, and still the largest, component festivals are the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (The Fringe); the latter is in its own right larger than any other similar event in the world.
The Edinburgh International Festival was established in 1947 in a post-war effort to "provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit". That same year, eight theatrical companies "gatecrashed" the official Festival by organising their own event, outside the official auspices of the EIF; this started the movement which grew into the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe, or (incorrectly) the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Edinburgh (i/ˈɛdɪnbərə/;Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Èideann [ˈt̪uːn ˈɛːtʲɛn̪ˠ]) is the capital city of Scotland, located in Lothian on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. It is the second most populous city in Scotland and the seventh most populous in the United Kingdom. The most recent official population estimates are 464,990 for the city of Edinburgh itself and 492,680 for the local authority area. Edinburgh lies at the heart of the Edinburgh & South East Scotland City region with a population in 2014 of 1,339,380. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is home to the Scottish Parliament and the seat of the monarchy in Scotland. The city is also the annual venue of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and home to national institutions such as the National Museum of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish National Gallery. It is the largest financial centre in the UK after London.