Edinburgh Festivals

Hogmanay starts on the 29 Dec with a torchlit procession through the city centre followed by four days of various events, including pop and rock concerts. The highlight is the giant street party on the 31st (which is for ticket holders only). Accommodation is always fully booked at this time. For information contact The Hub , or http://www.edinburghshogmanay.org. During these festival days Driving becomes a uphill task as the streets remain crowded and busy with visitors, so its better to go for public transport or by foot to catch the festivity live.

The Folk Festival, at the beginning of Apr, is a massive event and draws performers from near and far, Tel: 5543092. The Scottish International Children's Festival is the UK's largest performing arts festival for children and is held at the end of May (Box office: 45a George St, Tel: 2258050, http://www.imaginate.org.uk ).

At the end of Jun is the Royal Highland Show, at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, Tel: 3356200. It's a sort of display of the best of rural Scotland, with pedigree livestock competitions, flower shows, craft fairs and showjumping, amongst other things.

Also in Jun, usually in the 1st week, is the Caledonian Beer Festival, held at Edinburgh's own Caledonian Brewery on Slateford Road. The event features dozens of real ales, food and live music (mostly jazz) in the brewery's Festival Hall. See local press for details, or Tel: 3371286. The Filmhouse also hosts a number of foreign film seasons, most notably French (in Nov) and Italian, in Apr. There's also a gay film season, in Jun. For details, Tel: 2282688.

Few Other Festivals celebrated in Edinburgh

Ceilidh Culture Festivals

This festival is celebrated in many venues around Edinburgh between 24 Mar to 17 April. It includes a variety of attractions from gaelic singing, traditional dancing, bagpipe blowing, and other variation of the Celtic culture (228 1155)

Edinburgh International Science Festival

The festival gives a wide view towards the various scentific aspects and subjects with over 200 events. It is the largest science festival of the UK (558 7776)which gets going between 2 to 15 April.

Beltane Fire Festival

It is the druidic tradition which marks the transition from winter to spring, was rivived in 1998 after two millennia in hiatus. This has now grown into a mass of fire, drumming and exhibitionsts watched by over 10,000 people on 30th April. The tickets for this cost about ?3 to ?5.

Royal Highland Show

This festival marks the highland festivity with lot of attractions to look for, from Scottish rural life to the vast highland culture. One can enjoy a lot here from organic food to fancy tractors, you have a lot to enjoy in the Royal Highland Show. Ticket cost for a day is ?20, while u-16 are free, it starts from 19th June and ends at 22 June.

Doors Open day

This festival gives general public the oppurtunity to enter the private buildings, plants and other factories for that day. As the Cockburn Association convinces the owners of all those Edinburgh factories and building to open up their doors for one day in a year to the people. During this day the admission to these places are free.

Edinburgh Independent Radical Book Fair

It includes discussions, readings, launches which focuses on small and independet publishing houses.

Hallowe'en: Samhuinn

It marks the end of the Celtic summer, six months after Beltane. During this festival the Belatne Fire Society takes on to the streets once again, from Castle Esplanade, down the Royal Mile to parliament square, where the summer court led by the Green Man, is banished to the magical realm for winter on 31 october.

St Andrew's Day If you are looking for a reason to drink in Edinburgh, then St Andrew's Day is a auspicious day to have a toast. It's the day of feast of St Andrew's celebrated every year on the 30th November in Edinburgh.

Burns Night The day marks the birth of Robert 'Rabbie' Burns Scotland's unofficial poet laureate. He was born on 25th January 1759. This day every year is commemorated by Scots and they celebrate it with reciting the virtual sacred text, supping whisky. Even many book shops and theatres displays the eminent works of Rabbie Burns to remember him.