My First Fringe!
This year wasn’t my first first Fringe, of course – as a lifelong Edinburgher, I’ve been going to things in the festival since before I can remember – but it was my first as a participant. After a rough couple of years in tourism, joining in the return of the festival with my LGBTQ+ history tour was the perfect way to get back out guiding again and remind myself why I love this job so much.
The most flyers I’ve ever had at the start of August.
Six days a week throughout August, rain or shine, I headed out to meet a group of strangers and show them my city. Each day brought its tiny nervousness – will they like me? Will they enjoy the tour? Have I forgotten how to be a tour guide, sitting at home through many a lockdown since March last year? But it turns out tour guiding is like riding a bike, and the joy of showing off my favourite place in the world for a living was sparked anew with every day.
My group on the first day of the Fringe. I was so relieved people turned up!
I’d almost forgotten that one of the best things about this job is meeting new people and hearing the stories they bring with them. Sitting at home, going down google rabbitholes to research blog posts and plan tours, I hadn’t realised how much I missed the part where I get to know people as we explore the city together. Everyone brings their own curiosity, their own history, their own perspective.; every tour feels like a new experience and a new opportunity for me to learn about places I’ve never been and people I’ve never met.
Guiding my LGBTQ+ history tour in my hometown was particularly special, because in a normal year I rarely get the chance to learn from other locals. It was a new pleasure to welcome people who live here, from folk who could tell me firsthand stories of queer Edinburgh in the seventies and eighties through to the newest locals finding their feet in their new home. Helping people to uncover the history of their own city – and place themselves within a queer history going back centuries – was the most wonderful thing.
174 miles worth of Birkenstock tan lines.
It was also lovely to be out amongst the city almost every day, watching how it changes with the weather. I just added up my step count from tours in August and I walked 174 miles, which google maps tells me would be far enough to get to Mallaig! Even after almost two years of being basically nowhere except here, I’m still not sick of it – you could walk thousands of miles on Edinburgh’s streets and never be bored. (Although now I kind of want to walk to Mallaig too…)
The Fringe has been a strange thing this year. The city felt at once busy and quiet, and the usual din of life in August was more a murmur. It was a joy to see the theatres open their doors again and feel some life back in the streets. Everywhere that possibly can has an outdoor terrace these days, so there’s a lively continental buzz in the air as people eat al fresco. Obviously this is Scotland, so sometimes that means having a stoic pint under an umbrella while it pours with rain, but people seem to keep smiling.
New venues sprang up to cater for our love for everything outdoors, from the takeover of a multistorey carpark to marquees in university courtyards, and old classics like Assembly at George Square Gardens returned. A lot of the Fringe already takes place in random squares and courtyards, although you’d normally struggle to find a seat in the crowds.
Multistory, a new pop-up venue in a multistorey carpark by Edinburgh Castle (and a notable absence of crowds).
Everything was smaller and more muted than a normal year (I only got flyered twice in the whole month – I don’t think I’ve ever longed for people to give me flyers before!), but it felt like the beginning of things coming alive again. I loved getting to play my own small part in its revival and I can’t wait to see what next year’s festival looks like!
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I’m running my Scottish LGBTQ+ history tour again next week from 8th–11th of September! I’m also running my Hidden Secrets of the Royal Mile tour from 8th–10th September and a women’s history tour on the morning of the 11th. Find more details and book here.
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