Rebus – Hidden Edinburgh Rebustours with Colin Brown In the “Hidden Edinburgh” Tour many real places of the Rebus books are explored; from St. Leonards police station with his office to his favourite pubs, newsagent and crime locations. The start of both tours is the same, with the Royal High School for Boys, Salisbury Crag, Dumbiedykes and the Flodden Wall; this tour is particularly recommendable for the fans of the crime novels. We are treated to a lot of exclusive and inside information about Ian Rankin and his inspector, who celebrates his 20th anniversary this year and is also currently honored with an exhibition in the Writers Museum and a special beer.

Dare Protoplay Dare to be Digital For the first time in eight years, the annual dozen different prototypes of video games are accessible to both the Fringe and the public. All team members want to win the audience and the industry award; they are encouraging everybody to play. There is a water blobb moving through a labyrinth, a cupid shooting love arrows, motor racing, sinking ships in the bath, and my favourite – a guitar-playing hero blasting musical monsters. And even though I don’t like video games in general, I totally forgot the time trying to reanimate my rocker after he fainted three times into the arms of the evil,

Nachtmusique Bank of Scotland Queen’s Hall Series Ahhhhh! Classical, light-hearted beautiful music like this is just so wonderfully de-stressing, relaxing, calming, harmonising. So it’s no wonder that BBC Scotland is recording this performance to be broadcasted on 30th of August on BBC 3, for all who missed it live, want to hear it again or could not get a seat in this nearly sold-out concert hall. The six musicians are specialists in period instruments and early music arrangements; they also explain some basic knowledge about these wind instruments, in particular the unusual basset horn. And as fantastic as the performance was, its appeal did not stretch beyond the usual classical music lover, with an average age of over 60, giving the impression of the audience to be a massive care-home outing.

Window on the Fringe John Lewis A stage replaces the luxurious carpet display in the main shopping window of John Lewis. Every half an hour the acts change when a short performance is shown. Each theatre company has a weekly slot during the peak shopping time, which had to be booked in advance via the Fringe website. Outside the shopping times and during breaks the window is disappointingly empty, but the organisers are planning to cooperate in future with Edfest TV. Audience numbers for this brilliant, eye-catching shopper stopper vary between zero, ten and a hundred; dependent on weather, individual time commitments and performers.

Wow, since the Edinburgh Festival started, there has hardly been a pause to breath. Which sounds unusual, as the past seven years I have hardly ever been to any show or event. Basically did not have enough money, something most newspaper seem to forget about or dismiss [Guardian podcast] . So the free festivals have been great to catch up at least with some of the excitement, and so has volunteering and events at the local arts centre. Unfortunately though the Festival of Peace and Spirituality have now introduced entry fees to many of their events, which used to be free.