Edinburgh Festival 2012

It has been a strange Edinburgh festival this year. I’ve been so busy I’ve felt distracted/ detached from it all somewhat and I have less energy. I spend most of my time here at the Edinburgh Book Festival, more to follow. The next part of the saga that is ‘magical mystery tour’ of the Edinburgh trams is that the buses now detour to avoid the digging at Haymarket. The tram lines were started in 2008? and it is now years later and they are costing millions more that expected and are an embarrassment for the city. Did the people of the city get a say over it?  I think not.

 Everyone needs to be an artist in the babble of shows and posters that is the EIF and Fringe. It used to be about amateur student shows. Now it has become slick with stylized big productions and most young people go to the comedy shows. I heard that the new Summerhall venue is about what the festival used to be before it all became corporate, comedy and rubbish. 

**My Theme this year was Love. Love knows our hearts desires, our mirrors. There are voices of hope in a world often torn asunder and we are full of wonder… surely?  Tolstoy wrote of reverence, humility and love and he felt that the narrative was outside his control. I promise myself I need to write more.  

Where do stories come from and why? 

Whatever else love is, it is always a mystery.

Fireworks end each night to mark the finale of the Edinburgh Tattoo. 

Edinburgh Festival 2011 (review)

Roland Rivron

I still have hundreds of images to sort...

Edinburgh's theme this year was Eastern colours, dance, and contrasts.  How do we find the joys, the fun in life that gets lost in our everyday realities?  I always pick a theme and my theme this year is fun and what festivals should be for, because after all if life isn't 'fun' what exactly is it for? My main focus is now the 'Edinburgh International Book festival' and I have much less time on the High Street. 

I took photos of the fringe show 'LEO' that is heading to New York and of many authors. Some of my stalking didn't work out. I missed Gordon Brown, David Hasselhoff and Brad Pitt (here Glasgow) - but I did meet Alex Salmond and shook his hand! Cool. 

Stalking!  I missed some stalking opportunities!  I missed my shot of Gordon Brown (ex PM)  who came with his wife Sarah for her talk at the EIBF. It was only a normal Saturday night in Glasgow when Zombies take over the streets!  Tuesday and Brad Pitt media arrived in Glasgow Central station. The pose of photographers were disappointed as he was taken off the back of his train and whisked away.  I later heard that one snapper got the 'shot' for the Sun.  Also a tip that David Hasselhoff would be at the BBC tent at 10pm, and I wasn't able to manage this stalking either!   

FRINGE SHOWS. My first show was 'Rick Hall', as seen on tv show 'Mock the Week'.  Next 'The Dead Philosopher' at the Traverse and the premise was that 'life is a joke' - well if so this show certainly wasn't one!   *
 *LEO.  I took photos at 'Leo' which was a highly creative and wonderful performance and was performed by Tobias Wegner and directed by Daniel Briere. Leo won the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award and will receive a full NYC production at Theatre Row in January. The award is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe's highest honour, and was presented at the festival's closing ceremonies on August 26. 

I was on the phone outside Biblos restaurant on the corner of Chambers Street when 'Gerry' of Martian fame walked past in the rain wearing a long leather coat with his serious deadpan look. Perhaps it is all fleeting odd moments that we have here and nothing is real or as it seems..? Life leads us on strange paths and on these pavements that have seen to many footsteps...

 'Real harmony comes from the heart. Trust, respect and friendship are all essential.' Dala Lama. My Field of Dreams, I search through them as they hover above, Sometimes golden, Sometimes hollow. 

Edinburgh has strong ever changing winds and apparently the rain is connected to the high tides. One photographer has shot Dylan. In our yurt, that one describes as a 'soggy mushroom' the crack at times is fun. I wonder to myself that some young people can't take time to 'smell the roses' - they are so busy constantly plugged in online.

I love the challenge of Photography while sometimes I wonder it is writing I really want to be doing. Sometimes the song is like a gift.   

It has been cloudy quite often and I feel tired and sad it is over for another year. The last day and it feels the posters are tired and sad a little too, as am I. Cultural overload. For the discerning there is much on offer to delight the senses at EIF.  A big Thanks to all at the Edinburgh Book Festival for another top year.  2,500 shows at 250 venues over 3 to 4 weeks, over one million visitors.