Official 2006 opening August 6th. For the ensuing three weeks, Edinburgh will host 1,800 shows and 16,000 artists.This is the world’s largest arts festival entailing a record-breaking line-up of 1867 shows spread across 261 venues in the City. All of this activity places extreme pressure on existing facilities; the 16,990 performers have been forced into all sorts of contortions resulting in a number of improvised venues,viz:
- A show named Metamorphoses will take place in a hotel swimming pool.

-Some productions have found space in a rented bus.

- A Midsummernights Tree will present acrobatics and a caberet in a tree in Belgrave Crescent Gardens.

More facts:

-Theatre comprises approximately one third of the programme, just ahead of comedy.

-It would take 5 years, 11 months and 16 days to see each performance back-to-back at a cost of about GBP14,000 ($26,000).

-There will be 28,014 performances, 94 pct more than 10 years ago.

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