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Book festival opening tomorrow….Saturday 15th August !

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Image result for edinburgh book festivalThe Book festival opens tomorrow, the 15th August, and I am very excited – I LOVE this festival and I also love it as a venue to spend time with the kids – the children’s bookshop is a fantastic place to while away some time and they always have plenty of cosy nooks and crannies to settle down to explore some of the fantastic books on offer.

The festival also has the ‘story box’ which is a dedicated arts and crafts space for kids which is packed daily with new activities drawing on themes from the events held that day. There is often face painting and storytelling too, and it’s all FREE ! This means you can come and spend a few hours at the Book festival even if you don’t have tickets for any of the events.

The opening weekend is playing host to two days of extra special fun in the story box:

Animal AnticsSaturday 15th August from 1-4pm  – Animal Antics – They’ve got lots of animals in the programme; so drop-in to meet some more: two pygmy goats called Moonlight and Shadow. In association with Gorgie City Farm.

 

Happy Birthday MiffySunday 16th August from 2-4pm – Happy Birthday Miffy – Believe it or not, Dick Bruna’s beloved picture book character Miffy is 60 this year. Join us to celebrate the little rabbit’s birthday. You might even get to meet her!

Highlights from the first week…

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Phew…it’s all gone by in a bit of a blur, but the first week of the Fringe has been amazing. I have managed to squeeze in ALOT of seeing shows, a moderate amount of hanging out at the BBC tent, a touch of ‘flyers for shows’ collecting and what feels like a tiny pinch of blogging about it all….the sun has been kind enough to shine, ice creams have been eaten and I am feeling great !
It is hard to believe there are still another two and a half weeks to go and the book festival has not even started yet either – I am not sure where I will get the energy from to continue but I am loving the festival 2015 so far…
Here are a few of my highlights from the past week :

  • Traces – as I mentioned in my earlier post about my first day at the festival, this show is absolutely amazing, and still my overall highlight so far. Seven extremely talented and skilled circus performers take you on a journey, intertwining their acrobatic skills with moments of humour and friendship, and most impressively singing in Chinese- you are left wondering if there is anything these guys are not able to do !
  • Secret Life of Suitcases – The Storytelling Centre once again has a hidden gem of a show this festival – this is a beautiful, heart warming piece of theater with some exquisite puppetry. The set is gorgeous, and transforms along with this tale of embracing life’s adventures when you can…
  • Trash Test Dummies – featuring a trio of loveable Aussie clowns, this is a great family circus show with a good balance of acrobatics, clowning and musical fun.
  • Lords of Strut : The Family Show – see the blog post below – these guys were very, very entertaining – fun and mayhem for the whole family.

Both the BBC tent and the Pleasance Kidzone have proved great places to hang out with children. The BBC tent offers a ping pong table, deckchairs, IPads, a big screen showing various shows and a free photo-booth whilst the Pleasance Kidzone has arts and crafts, picnic tables, a puppet theatre and lots of visitors from children’s shows taking place at the various Pleasance venues.

I’m just hoping I find some more time to get out and about and enjoy it all ….

Catch it while you can…

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Cian Killick and Corman Mohally as Lords of Strut in Edinburgh. IMAGE: @magicbibbyI am not sure who was enjoying the Lords of Strut: The Family Show more today – the adults or the children?, but it’s fair to say this fast paced, chaotic show is entertaining for the whole family. I caught a brief snapshot of these guys last year and I was keen to see them perform a  full family show and I wasn’t disappointed !

Proudly exclaiming they will bring us the ‘greatest dancing this rental hall has ever seen’, Irish brothers Famous Seamus and Sean-tastic lead us through an hour of brilliant break dancing, amazing acrobatics and some really rather attractive shellsuits and spandex ! Set along to some familiar 80s tunes that got the whole audience clapping along, this show is filled with wit and charm. The rapport between the two performers is fantastic and means there is never a dull moment, and of course, the audience are required to get involved along the way too..

Sprinkled with a few surprises, (I am not sure I will ever be able to look at a teaspoon in quite the same way for a while), this silly show is sure to brighten up your afternoon.

The show is only on until the 16th August, so grab a ticket while you can…

Splendid Summerhall…

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I do love Summerhall – it is a fantastic venue that has constantly grown and developed over the past few years and now hosts such an exciting festival line-up. It is also a great venue in itself, with a cool cafe that is perfect for families and those bringing buggies/pushchairs and Summerhall even boasts its own brewery and now a Gin distillery too !

This year Summerhall plays host to a wide variety of family shows – here are a few of my top picks :

  • The Voice Thief – Welcome to The MacKenzie Institute for the Encouragement of Vocal Harmony, a darkly mysterious place where hundreds of girls’ voices have been held captive for years. This is the first time that the public have been allowed into The Institute and it may also be the last one. Aged 9 +

 

  • Chicken Licken and The Little Red Hen – Mixed into this recipe of food, puppets and music is the story of Little Red Hen and the sly Foxy Loxy. Will she outwit him and save her stuffing?

 

 

  • Anatomy of the piano (for beginners) – I think this show looks fascinating and musical treat   – “Will asks Father Christmas for a spaceship – he gets a piano! This is a breathtaking adventure into the world of pianos, revealing where they come from, how they evolved and why they make a pretty cool Christmas present.”

  • Our Teacher’s a Troll – Two terrible twins with a talent for turmoil rule their school with terror and tyranny, until the arrival of a new head teacher with green scaly skin, sharp fangs and a long spiky tail.

First day…

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So after all the anticipation and build up, today was the first day that I ventured into festival-land and saw some shows…and it’s been fantastic, also helped by the large amounts of sunshine – yay !

I am going to be doing some reviews of shows over on my reviews page – so do start checking that out soon, but to give you a wee run down on my first glimpse of some shows:

We went to see ‘Morgan and West’s Utterly Spiffing Spectacular Magic Show for kids‘ which was really fun – they were really interactive with the audience and there was lots of opportunity for audience participation which went down well and all the tricks seemed to amaze everyone (adults included) – its been selling out, so best to book early.  Then we saw ‘The princess and the frog‘ which was a delight, beautiful costumes and really engaging characters, with such fantastic dancing – it’s a great introduction to ballet for wee ones and all of the children there today were enchanted throughout.

But the most mind blowingly amazing show I saw today and one which I think may be hard to top in the next few weeks is ‘Traces‘  – its a mix of acrobatics, circus, music and dance – the seven performers were incredible and there were a few ‘on the edge of your seat’ moments during the show, with a pulsing soundtrack and some really fun and genuine moments, I enjoyed every single second – and so did the kids ! It was packed out tonight on its opening, so I think it’ll be another one to grab tickets while you can….