After You’ve Gone…

The festival is well and truly over. The weather in Edinburgh is once again beautiful, sunny and warm. Well, it was for two days. For me the whole event is like having friends to stay in your flat. When they are there, you laugh, drink and eat too much. You fit six people into a two room flat, fight to get into the bathroom and fall over backpacks. It is truly wonderful to have them there but a little bit of a relief when they go and you have the place back to yourself.

We can cope with a month long festival but I don’t think the city or its people have the stamina for it to go on much longer than that. The atmosphere is vibrant and busy, the cultural feast is overflowing with delights (and disappointments) and the few weeks of the festival are for some, one big party. However, the wallet and the liver would not cope for a much longer period. The sleep deprivation would take its toll. The sheer number of people in a relatively small space would soon begin to irritate, as would the constant interruptions by the species known as flyerer irritatus.

We get back our Masonic lodges (roll up your trouser leg in anticipation), student unions and Aga showrooms. Personally, I don’t make use of any of those but there are those, who will be glad to see them performer free. The queues in Tesco in Nicolson Street are shorter and gaffa tape is once again in plentiful supply.

You really do need it all to go away so that you appreciate even more when it all comes back next year.

I am often asked what Edinburgh is like out with Festival time. It certainly isn’t a cultural backwater. We have three major touring venues, a couple of producing houses and music and art venues. Glasgow is an hour away on the train and has its own cornucopia of theatrical delights. So, we don’t go short. And if we did, there are only another 47 weeks to go!

– Keith Paterson