皇家英里大道, 爱丁堡, 苏格兰 Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Scotland (© MEDITERRANEAN/Getty Images)

惊喜随时上演 Expect the unexpected

爱丁堡艺穗节

每年八月，爱丁堡就不再仅仅是一座城市，而是彻底活跃起来，几乎可以说是字面意义上的活跃。从酒吧地下室到公园长椅，舞台会在最意想不到的地方冒出来，表演也会在宁静的街道上突然出现。欢迎来到爱丁堡艺穗节。这个节日的故事始于1947年，当时有八个剧团在未受邀请的情况下出现在爱丁堡国际艺术节上，但他们依然坚持演出。这种叛逆的精神从此延续下来，艺穗节由此诞生。

如今，它已是世界上最大的艺术节，数千场演出在为期三周的日程里接连上演，任何人都可以参与。只要你有想法，并能找到一个场地，就可以上台表演。甚至一个集装箱都可以被用作舞台，这确实曾经发生过。喜剧是这个艺术节的非官方之王，但也少不了戏剧、舞蹈、变装、音乐剧、魔术、哑剧、朗诵、马戏以及那些难以归类的表演。有一年，一位演员在冰箱里做了一个小时的独白；还有一年，有人用克林贡语上演了一部莎士比亚剧作。街头艺人挤满了如今日图片所示的皇家大道，他们表演魔术、杂耍，并热情地分发宣传单。爱丁堡艺穗节是实验性表演与高端戏剧的乐园，也是许多艺术家职业生涯的起点，比如菲比·沃勒-布里奇和埃迪·伊扎德。

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Every August, Edinburgh stops being just a city and starts acting up—literally. From pub basements to park benches, stages appear in the strangest places, and shows pop up on quiet streets. Welcome to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, or the Fringe. The story began in 1947, when eight theater groups turned up uninvited to the Edinburgh International Festival. They performed anyway. That spirit of rebellion stuck, and the Fringe was born.

Now it's the world's largest arts festival, with thousands of shows crammed into three action-packed weeks. Anyone can perform. If you have an idea and a venue, you're in. Even a shipping container counts—yes, that really happened. Comedy is the unofficial king of the festival, but there's also drama, dance, drag, musicals, magic, mime, spoken word, circus, and acts that defy all categories. One year, a man did an hour-long monologue from inside a fridge. Another year featured a full Shakespeare play in Klingon. Street performers flood the Royal Mile, pictured here, offering sneak peeks, juggling acts, and flyers. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is where experimental performances and high-end theater thrive. It has launched careers: think of artists like Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Eddie Izzard.

标签: 苏格兰, 爱丁堡