Tuesday 26 August 2008

Martha and Gilbert

Well, that's it - the Fringe is over. The shows are finished, the street performers gone and the yearly awards handed out. Other festivals, including the Tattoo, the Book Festival and Festival of Politics, have also ended, although some venues, such as the Spiegel Garden, remain open until this weekend. The Edinburgh International Festival also has another week to run. The reason why this blog has focused on the Fringe rather than the EIF is that the latter is played out almost entirely indoors, with opera, theatre, ballet and musical performances taking place in some of the biggest and most prestigeous venues of the city.

This picture then, shows an advert for the EIF on the glass front of the Omni Centre on Leith Street. The giraffes, made out of recycled car and motorbike parts by artist Helen Dennerly, are a permanent fixture. Their official title is 'Dreaming Spires' but they have - apparently! - been nicknamed Martha and Gilbert.

3 comments:

Kris McCracken said...

Will you miss the Fringe?

Dido said...

Yes of course!! It's right on my doorstep because I work in the city centre. And this year it's flown by as the weather hasn't been brilliant.

I do feel for those tourists who come to Edinburgh at the end of the EIF and expect all the fun of the Fringe still to be there when it's already finished. Must be a bit of a disappointment.

Knoxville Girl said...

Thanks for introducing me to Fringe - I'm putting it on my "places to go, things to do" list now - it looks like it lives up to its name.