Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Festival frugalities

<strong>Deep Cut<br /> </strong><em>Traverse </em> <strong>Jidariyya</strong><br /> <em>Royal Lyceum </em> <strong>4.48 Psychosis</strong> <br /> <em>King’s Theatre </em> <strong>Eco-Friendly Jihad</strong><br /> <em>Underbelly </em> <strong>Please Don’t Feed The Models</strong> <br /> <em>Underbelly</em> <strong>Scaramouche Jones</strong><br /> <em>Assembly Rooms </em> <strong>Absolution</strong><br /> <em>Assembly Rooms</em>

issue 23 August 2008

Deep Cut

Traverse

Jidariyya
Royal Lyceum

4.48 Psychosis
King’s Theatre

Eco-Friendly Jihad
Underbelly

Please Don’t Feed The Models
Underbelly

Scaramouche Jones
Assembly Rooms

Absolution
Assembly Rooms

Snap! That’s the sound of the credit crunch biting into attendance figures at Edinburgh. This year the Royal Mile teems with unloved luvvies urging discounted tickets on sceptical punters, and the city’s population of cadgers and tramps has fled. Usually they hover like spy planes and swoop on you demanding ‘a poond’. I was approached just once by a hapless ruin humbly tilting for 15 pence. This slump’s getting serious. Even the beggars are going out of business.

There are winners, of course. Previously an internet rumour, the free fringe has achieved lift-off this year with sponsorship and a glossy brochure.

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