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Article: The Edinburgh Festival's half-century.
- Article from:
- Contemporary Review
- Article date:
- November 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Contemporary Review Company Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Actors with painted faces recite Shakespearean soliloquies in the streets, fire eaters stage dangerous stunts, acrobats perform somersaults in front of astonished passers-by and the sound of bagpipes fills the air and merges with the noise of traffic and pedestrians. This can only mean one thing -- the Edinburgh International Festival is in full swing. Nowhere else is a festival so all-pervading that it seems to take over the whole life of the city. The 1997 festival, which marked former Welsh National Opera director, Brian McMaster's sixth year in the hot seat, was a particular cause for celebration as it was the fiftieth anniversary of what has now become the largest ...