The ‘Edinburgh Festival’ is an umbrella term for a group of independently-organised summer festivals. Of these, the Fringe is the biggest and the festivals all mesh together providing an awesome array of events to choose from. Over the summer there are literally tens of thousands of performances of theatre, comedy, music, musicals, children’s shows, dance, performance art, exhibitions and events.

Whilst still remaining true to its founding principle of open-access for all performers, the Fringe has come a long way since its organisational beginnings in a pub just off the Royal Mile.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is officially recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest festival in the world and big names that have been appeared include Robin Williams, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson and Jude Law and is a hotbed for talent scouts looking for the next big thing.

If you are travel to Europe and festivals are your thing, it’s certainly worth popping up to Edinburgh to check it out.